A man suspected of poisoning his newlywed wife to death for bail fraud scolded the court and still denied the crime at the first trial of the second trial.

In order to repay his gambling debts, Zhang Shuyuan, a man in his 60s, deliberately tried to defraud his newlywed wife Chen Nv to collect insurance benefits. In 2020, while his wife was hospitalized for surgery, he mixed a potion containing topical anesthetics into a drink and fed her, causing her to have epileptic seizures and death from brain hypoxia. The New Taipei District Court heard a civil judge and found that the crime was serious and sentenced him to life imprisonment and deprivation of public rights for life. Zhang Shuyuan appealed. The High Court held its first hearing today. Zhang Nan still denied committing the crime and argued that he didn't even know what drugs looked like, and he had no idea about the crime.

According to the investigation by the prosecutor, Zhang is a garbage truck driver with a murder record. After dating Chen in August 2020, he insured her health insurance and accident insurance for 1 million yuan each in a short period of time, and registered his marriage in November of the same year. Only 3 weeks after her marriage, Ms. Chen went to Yadong Hospital for hemorrhoid surgery. She suddenly fell into epileptic coma the day after the operation and died after several months of resuscitation.

Forensic autopsy found that Ms. Chen’s body contained trace amounts of local anesthetic ingredients that were only for external use. The hospital did not prescribe or use the relevant drugs, but Mr. Zhang was in possession of the relevant potions. The police also checked the monitors and confirmed that only Mr. Zhang accompanied and cared for her during the hospitalization. In addition, the time between insurance, marriage and death was short, and the medical appraisal also ruled out medical negligence, so they identified Mr. Zhang as a serious suspect.

Zhang Nan denied committing any crime and argued that his wife died due to medical negligence. The prosecutor also accused him of trying to poison his girlfriend, named Wang, with heroin and pesticides and steal her savings. The case was not prosecuted due to insufficient evidence. However, the crime methods were similar, which aroused the prosecutors' suspicion. Zhang failed the polygraph test, and eventually the two cases were prosecuted for homicide and attempted homicide. After a first-instance trial by a civil judge, the New Taipei District Court sentenced him to life imprisonment and deprived him of his public rights for life.

Zhang Shuyuan filed an appeal, and the High Court held a preparatory court today. Zhang Nan told the judge that he still doesn’t know what happened. He even claimed that he didn’t know what the first-instance judgment said. The judgment found that it was not what actually happened. He also denied stealing the money from his girlfriend, the princess, and said that when he borrowed the money, he was notified and the woman handed over the ATM card. He also denied letting the princess use heroin, saying that he didn't even know what the drug looked like. He called an ambulance that day when he found the princess unresponsive.

Regarding his wife Chen Nu’s decision to take out an insurance policy and designate him as the beneficiary, Zhang said that he only introduced the insurance company. Chen Nu’s decision to apply for the insurance and designate the beneficiary was entirely up to her. The marriage between the two of them had nothing to do with the insurance. Zhang Nan only admitted that he did have financial pressure, but he had no gambling debts.

The defense lawyer argued that the first trial did not explain the reason for not accepting evidence favorable to Zhang, and that the Forensic Medicine Institute held a meeting to discuss the case and conducted a second autopsy of the body, and believed that supplementary identification was necessary.

Zhang's detention period will expire on October 5. He has no objection to the extension, but he said that his heart is equipped with five stents and he needs to take regular medication. He also said that he has almost no money to buy medicine after being detained for two years. The judge informed that the preparatory proceedings will be continued on October 29.