Murder conviction in 2017 Burnaby karaoke bar stabbing upheld

B.C.’s highest court has rejected a bid to overturn the second-degree murder conviction for a man who stabbed another man to death in a Burnaby karaoke bar seven years ago.

Lloyd Jay So was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years in connection with the death of Joong Kwan Kim.

On Sept. 18, 2017, after a brief altercation, So used a knife with a 10-inch blade that he had taken from the kitchen of the bar — OB’s Cabin on Kingsway — and repeatedly stabbed Kim in the neck, torso, and groin.

So hadn’t denied the crime, but his lawyer had claimed he was in a dissociative state when he carried out the killing and was too drunk to have the intent necessary to be convicted of murder.

The appeal court dismissed that claim along with other arguments that the trial judge had made certain errors.