The Krabi Provincial Court on Wednesday sentenced six men to death for invading a village headman's home and murdering him and seven members of his family last July.
They are Surikfat Bannopwongsakul, 41, Prajak Boontoy, 36, Komsan Wiangnon, Abdulloh Doloh, 30, Tawatchai Boonkong, 37, and Arun Thongkham, 29.
Two other defendants received prison terms of one year and one year and nine months.
The court found the first six defendants guilty of the murder of Worayut Sanglang, 46 and seven of his family, three of them young children, on the night of July 10, 2017.
The court did not consider requests for suspension or release on bail.
Surikfat, also known as Bang Fat, and his accomplices were wearing military-like clothing when they forced their way into Worayut's home and held 11 members of the family captive.
They were later all shot, execution style. Three of the victims, a mother and her two young daughters, survived. The mother's wound was a bullet graze, and she passed out. The girls raised their hands to block the bullets, which lodged in their heads.
According to earlier reports, the killers tried to fake the death scene, using Worayut's gun to kill the family and making it appear he then killed himself.
Worayut's father-in-law had pledged a block of land to Surikfat as security for a loan. He later repaid the loan but Surikfat was unable to return the property because he in turn had pledged it for a loan he took out. Worayut demanded the return of the land, which led to a bitter conflict culminating in mass murder.
