On 2 December 2005, at his Dover Road flat, 44-year-old condominium caretaker Mohammad Zam Abdul Rashid attacked and severely assaulted his 38-year-old wife Ramona Johari (a production operator) after he accused her of getting close to a colleague.
During that same morning, the police responded to a report about a domestic dispute and arrived at the victim's flat, where they found 38-year-old Ramona Johari, a production operator, lying unconscious on her bed after she was brutally beaten, and she also sustained multiple injuries on her body (especially her head and face).
Further check-ups revealed that Ramona was bleeding from the gums and had several loose teeth, and a CT scan showed that she had acute right subdural haematoma and required emergency craniectomy (meaning removal of the skull).
[5] Mohammad Zam's younger brother also told reporters that his late sister-in-law was a good person and she often cared for his well-being,[6] and he regretted leaving the flat on the night of the assault.
[7][8] Ramona's nephew was also interviewed in July 2007 (the same month of Mohammad Zam's trial) to speak about his traumatic experience of seeing his uncle battering his aunt to death.
Upon the death of Ramona two days since the assault, Mohammad Zam was brought back to court a second time and charged with murder on 6 December 2005.
This was not Mohammad Zam's first marriage as he had an ex-wife and teenage son who were not in contact with him, and he lived together with his wife, his younger brother Abdul Rahim (a divorcee) and the 13-year-old nephew of Ramona at their Dover Road flat.
Sources reveal that Mohammad Zam, who was educated up to primary six, was the fourth out of seven children in his family and had a twin brother Ramziz, but he was estranged from most of his siblings.
Ramona managed to escape the bedroom thereafter and hid inside the kitchen toilet, but Mohammad Zam broke the door and entered the bathroom, dragging his wife out and resumed punching and slapping her head and face while spewing vulgarities at her.
Later, Mohammad Zam called the teenager to come out and bring Ramona to bed, and the nephew found his aunt's face covered in blood and she looked weak, and she did not respond to his attempts to wake her up.
[25] Mohammad Zam was represented by Andy Yeo, Lim Dao Kai and Jesslyn Chia, while the prosecution consisted of Imran Abdul Hamid and Muhamad Imaduddien.
[29] Before rendering sentence on Mohammad Zam, the trial judge allowed the psychiatric evidence to be presented for the purposes of calibrating the appropriate punishment for the accused.
The disorder causes one to have an inability to cope with his anger or exhibit bizarre behaviours, and hence substantially impaired Mohammad Zam's mental responsibility at the time of the killing.
Dr Phang cited that Mohammad Zam's disorder was the reason behind his occasional inappropriate sexual advances towards his wife and the molestation charges he was convicted for back in 2000, and his berserk behaviour and brutal attack of Ramona was also exacerbated by the alcohol intake and intoxication he sustained prior to the case.
[3] On the other hand, the defence objected to the imposition of a life sentence, stating that the death of Ramona was not pre-planned and he had actually consumed twice the normal intake of alcohol he could consume and handle, and he had not committed any violent offences in the past despite his conviction for molestation and other various crimes, and Mohammad Zam was remorseful for killing his wife, with whom he shared a good relationship for 17 years and his loss was deeply felt as the rest of his kin did.
They argued that Mohammad Zam's disorder was the basis of his previous crime of molestation and the present offence of killing Ramona, and he himself was unaware of the frontal lobe syndrome up until he was arrested and psychiatrically assessed.
"[3][31] Justice Tay also described the fatal assault as a "running, bloody battle" where Mohammad Zam had persisted in his pursuit of Ramona throughout the whole flat and even took to every lengths to batter his defenceless wife to death.
Justice Tay also admonished Mohammad Zam for his lack of remorse, which was demonstrated by his decision to not immediately render any medical assistance for his wife, and it further cemented his status as a dangerous individual to society in the present and near future.
On the aspect of familial support, Justice Tay heavily referenced the case of Constance Chee Cheong Hin, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the wrongful abduction and manslaughter of her boyfriend's daughter.
In contrast to Chee's case, Mohammad Zam did not have strong familial support, and based on this ground and other aggravating circumstances of the case, Justice Tay concluded that Mohammad Zam should be isolated from society for the longest period possible for the sake of protecting the public at large and found it appropriate to mete out the maximum custodial sentence available.
Since the manslaughter of Ramona Johari occurred on 2 December 2005, about eight years and three months after the legal reform, Mohammad Zam was to be imprisoned for the remainder of his whole life behind bars.