The Supreme Court has upheld the life sentence handed down against a Lahu ethnic highlander for shooting to death the Sai Ngam district police chief in Kamphaeng Phet in April 2011.
Simu Jayor, 55, was indicted by prosecutors on Aug 2, 2011, for the murder of Pol Col Krirkrit Niyomserm, chief of Sai Ngam police in Kamphaeng Phet, which took place on April 19 of that year.
The court was later told Simu was hired as a hitman to kill the senior police officer at his home in Muang district of Nakhon Sawan. Simu was later captured in the border area in Chiang Mai.
Simu told police he was assisted in carrying out the murder by a man named Niran Phuengsampao.
Mr Niran was accused of hiring Simu and procuring a getaway motorcycle for him. Police charged Simu with premeditated murder and possessing a firearm and using it in public without permission.
Mr Niran is facing charges of colluding in the murder and possessing a firearm without permission.
Mr Niran is reportedly a contractor based in Nakhon Sawan.
Police believe the killing was motivated by a conflict over the bidding on a project to build an embankment on the Chao Phraya River worth 290 million baht in Nakhon Sawan.
On July 3, 2013, the lower court sentenced Simu to death but commuted the sentence to life imprisonment due to his confession and useful statements he gave in court. The convicted man appealed the sentence.
On July 28, 2016, the Appeal Court upheld the ruling against Simu who took the case to the Supreme Court.
