The suspect, Anbuarsu Joseph, was found guilty of murdering Thampusamy and sentenced to death in August 1994, and he was hanged on 7 July 1995.
On the other hand, 41-year-old Murugear Singaram, who was the second victim and Thampusamy's Malaysian friend, survived the brutal attack with slight head injuries and he received six stitches.
The attack brought shock to the patrons and other witnesses, and the murder of Thampusamy was the second incident of violence to take place at the coffee shop in about two months.
Anbuarsu was represented by both R Gunaretnam and Loo Ngan Chor, while the prosecution consisted of Jasbendar Kaur and Lawrence Wong.
Veteran judge T S Sinnathuray was appointed to hear Anbuarsu's case in the High Court, where those charged with murder or other capital offences were brought to trial.
The prosecution's case was that Anbuarsu, who was identified as the person who used an axe to kill Thampusamy (even though he confessed to using a parang instead of an axe like what the witnesses claimed), shared the common intention with his two accomplices to launch an attack on members of the rival gang Ang Soon Tong, but both Thampusamy and his friend were not part of the Ang Soon Tong and yet Anbuarsu and his accomplices mistook them for being so, resulting in the brutal attack on both the men.
Justice Sinnathuray also said that he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Anbuarsu had intentionally used an axe to bludgeon Thampusamy on the head, such that the fractures on Thampusamy's skull were sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, and that Anbuarsu had done so while he acted in furtherance of the common intention with his accomplices to attack those they perceived to be rival gang members present in that area.
The three judges - Chief Justice Yong Pung How, and two Judges of Appeal L P Thean (Thean Lip Ping) and M Karthigesu - upheld the murder conviction and death sentence, stating that Anbuarsu had confessed to murdering Thampusamy on four occasions during his questioning by police, and that his alleged claims of confessing under duress and police abuse were unsupported by medical opinion, which found no physical injury on him, and they thus rejected the defence's contention that the trial judge was erred in ruling his statements as admissible in the case.
[20] Subsequently, as a final recourse to evade the gallows, Anbuarsu filed a motion for presidential clemency, which would allow the commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment if successful.