A shooting inside a family home triggered an international manhunt
The High Court judgment records that Tan Chor Jin went to Lim Hock Soon's flat at Block 223 Serangoon Avenue 4 in the early hours of February 15, 2006. Later that morning, Tan discharged six rounds from a Beretta .22-calibre pistol. Lim suffered five gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead in the flat.
Lim's wife, daughter and domestic worker were also in the home. The case quickly became a cross-border investigation after Tan left Singapore and was later arrested in Kuala Lumpur.
The murder charge was amended before trial
Tan was originally charged with murder. Before trial, however, prosecutors proceeded on an amended capital charge under the Arms Offences Act: using a firearm by discharging six rounds with intent to cause physical injury to Lim.
This distinction is not semantic. A fatal shooting can be a homicide case while the final legal conviction rests on a different statute. Crime by Region therefore does not label Tan as having a murder conviction when the court record shows that his final conviction was for the arms offence.
The High Court rejected Tan's defences
Tan represented himself at trial after declining assigned legal representation. He acknowledged firing the pistol but disputed the required intent and raised arguments including accident, intoxication and private defence. The High Court rejected those positions and convicted him under the Arms Offences Act on May 22, 2007.
The judgment records the forensic and witness evidence surrounding the shooting and the statutory presumption of intent that applied once the firearm was used.
The Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction
On appeal, Tan was represented by counsel. In Tan Chor Jin v Public Prosecutor [2008] SGCA 32, the Court of Appeal rejected his challenges to the conviction, including arguments about accident, intoxication, private defence and his right to counsel at trial.
The Straits Times later reported that Tan was executed on January 9, 2009. It also documented the later prosecution of a man who helped him leave Singapore. Those later proceedings are related history, not separate versions of Lim's killing.
Timeline
February 15, 2006: Lim Hock Soon is fatally shot in his Serangoon flat; Tan Chor Jin leaves Singapore.
February 25, 2006: Tan is arrested in Kuala Lumpur after a cross-border manhunt.
May 22, 2007: the High Court convicts Tan under the Arms Offences Act on the amended capital charge.
July 18, 2008: the Court of Appeal publishes grounds dismissing Tan's appeal.
January 9, 2009: The Straits Times reports that the sentence is carried out.
Current status
The killing of Lim Hock Soon is Solved / Adjudicated. Tan Chor Jin's conviction under the Arms Offences Act was affirmed on appeal. The archive does not misstate that conviction as a murder conviction.