LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A Gwinnett County Police Department homicide detective revealed Thursday that a cell phone video shows religious group members torturing a woman so severely, for weeks, that she died.
Seven people from Gwinnett County, calling themselves “Soldiers of Christ,” are charged with murdering the woman. Police said she had come to the U.S. from South Korea on a religious quest for a better life.
Thursday evening, Gwinnett County Chief Magistrate Court Judge Kristina Hammer Blum ruled there is enough evidence against at least five of the seven to proceed with prosecution. The other two defendants were not part of Thursday’s hearing.
They’re all accused of being a murderous street gang, not a religious group.
Homicide Detective Angela Carter with the Gwinnett Police Department testified at Thursday’s hearing that the suspects took videos of themselves inflicting painful torture on the woman, in the basement of a Gwinnett County home, as part of her initiation into their group this past summer.
“She was standing on her head halfway, her hands behind her back," Carter said, describing one of the videos. "There was a belt; she was being whipped with what appeared to be a belt.”
Carter said 33-year-old Sehee Cho had moved to Gwinnett County from South Korea on July 21, hoping Soldiers of Christ would help her find a deeper connection to her religion.
When she tried to escape the house soon after the “initiation” began, Sehee couldn't get out, Carter said, with court documents showing the suspects withheld food from her. Carter said one of the videos from August shows Sehee being ordered to get into a tub of ice, and the video shows how frail she had become by then.
“Sehee is not deceased as of yet, but it looks like she’s struggling,” Carter said. “She’s having issues breathing. Her eyes--in my opinion, she appears to almost be dead; she looks very, very weak.”
Last month, Sehee’s body was discovered in the trunk of a car in Gwinnett County, and police said she weighed 70 pounds. Carter said at the hearing that Sehee's medical records from just before her move to the U.S. showed she had been healthy, with a normal weight.
According to Carter, the suspects had already taken a photo of Sehee's body in the house's basement, before they moved her into the trunk.
Defense attorneys contend that Sehee voluntarily sought to join the group and agreed to undergo its initiation, and could have left if she'd wanted out. And they are beginning to point fingers of blame for her death away from their own clients to the others.
The ruling Thursday means that the five who were at the hearing will face trial on charges that include felony murder.