On 17 July 1987, at a military camp in Ulu Pandan Road in Singapore, 34-year-old Staff Sergeant (SSGT) Daniel De Rozario was fatally shot by a 19-year-old National Serviceman named Chia Chee Yeen (谢志贤 Xiè Zhìxián), a Lance Corporal who was also an armoury storeman.
[7] On 9 January 1990, Lance Corporal Chia Chee Yeen stood trial at the High Court for one count of murdering SSGT De Rozario.
As a result, SSGT De Rozario punished Lance Corporal Chia by forbidding him from leaving the camp for the next six weeks (including the weekends when the NS men get to go home).
After killing SSGT De Rozario, Lance Corporal Chia fled to another location in the camp and he attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself.
However, Dr Ang Ah Ling was called by the prosecution to rebut the defence's medical opinion, and Dr Ang said that Lance Corporal Chia did not suffer from diminished responsibility at the time of the murder, since Lance Corporal Chia was able to maintain a satisfactory performance during his time in NS and he never displayed any abnormal behaviour before, during and after the murder, and he was fully aware of his actions.
[21][22] Several other medical experts were also called to prove that the defendant was mentally sound at the time of the shooting,[23] and Dr Chan Khim Yew, a prison psychiatrist, testified that he found it hard to assess Lance Corporal Chia due to him generally being uncommunicative, so much so that the trial had to be paused at one point to order a new psychiatric test.
In their joint verdict, Judicial Commissioner Chao and Justice Coomaraswamy found Lance Corporal Chia guilty of murder, and sentenced him to death according to the law.
[26] From this, Judicial Commissioner Chao said that it was clear through this instance that Lance Corporal Chia possessed "a streak of temper which will even cause him to defy authority if he thinks what he is being asked to do is unfair", and he was not deluding himself into believing he was the Hong Kong actor Chow Yun Fatt.
The judges stated Lance Corporal Chia may have imitated the actions portrayed by Chow in his movies, but Lance Corporal Chia still retained his consciousness and understanding of his actions at the time of the shooting, which was done out of intention to cause the death of SSGT De Rozario or at least a bodily injury sufficient to cause SSGT De Rozario's death.
During his phone interview with a Singaporean newspaper from Hong Kong, Chow expressed his regret and apologized for the incident, and he emphasized that people should discern reality from fiction and not imitate whatever they see in the movies.