Ex-Sabah rugby player jailed 12 years for causing sister's death
PETALING JAYA : A rugby player who used to represent Sabah has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Kota Kinabalu High Court for causing his sister's death in 2023.
This comes after Arden Mattson Maturin, 28, pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, The Borneo Post reported.
Arden was initially charged with murder two years ago and was supposed to go on trial today, but the deputy public prosecutor's office had accepted his representations.
Today, he was charged with causing the death of his younger sister, Audrey Maturin, 24, at a house in Taman Prestij, off Jalan Signal Hill, on May 4, 2023.
The charge under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code is punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a fine, upon conviction.
Justice Duncan Sikodol ordered Arden's 12-year jail term to begin from the date of his arrest on May 4, 2023.
The court heard that Arden and Audrey were at the family home when a note she had written to him purportedly 'provoked' him, leading to an altercation between the two.
Arden then assaulted his sister repeatedly and left the house. Audrey was found in a pool of blood in the living room and died in hospital two days later.
A post-mortem revealed she had suffered severe traumatic brain injury with haemorrhagic shock and multiple facial fractures.
The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, neck and chest.
Sikodol ruled that the incident occurred in the heat of the moment, driven by rage, and that Arden was young and had expressed remorse over the incident.
The judge, however, said the jail sentence was necessary given public interest in the case and to reflect the sanctity of life.
'I am of the view that a sentence of 12 years' imprisonment strikes the necessary balance between punishment and compassion. It reflects the gravity of the act while acknowledging the tragic familial context in which it occurred,' he said when delivering his judgment.
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