Donny @ Mohd Nazmie bin Musanna v Public Prosecutor

Court of Appeal · · Criminal Law

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Donny @ Mohd Nazmie bin Musanna v Public Prosecutor
CourtCourt of Appeal
Judgment Date18 June 2025
Date Uploaded10 February 2026
Legal TopicsCriminal Law
Parties

Appellant(s): Donny @ Mohd Nazmie Bin Musanna

Respondent(s):

  • Pendakwa Raya
  • [Pendakwa Raya]
Bench
  • YA Dato' Paduka Azman Bin Abdullah
  • YA Datuk Azhahari Kamal bin Ramli
  • YA Datuk Noorin binti Badaruddin
Facts & Background
  • The appellant was convicted of murder under section 302 of the Penal Code by the High Court and sentenced to death, leading to this appeal against the conviction and sentence.
  • The prosecution's case relied on an eyewitness who testified to seeing the appellant repeatedly punching and kicking the deceased on the head and face during a drinking session.
  • The deceased's cause of death was confirmed by a medical officer as severe head injury due to blunt force trauma, consistent with the eyewitness's account of the assault.
Issues for the Court
  • Whether the High Court erred in fact and law by finding that the appellant was the person who inflicted the fatal head and face injuries on the deceased.
  • Whether the High Court correctly accepted the evidence of the eyewitness and the corroborating witness as credible and reliable, despite alleged inconsistencies and the eyewitness's state of intoxication.
  • Whether the absence of the deceased's blood on the appellant's clothing and the appellant's defence of intoxication negated the prosecution's case or the requisite mens rea for murder.
Decision
  • The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction for murder, finding that the High Court's assessment of witness credibility was neither perverse nor plainly wrong.
  • The Court affirmed that the eyewitness's consistent testimony, corroborated by circumstantial evidence from another witness and objective medical findings, sufficiently established that the appellant inflicted the fatal injuries.
  • The Court rejected the appellant's defence of intoxication as self-induced and lacking medical evidence, and found the absence of bloodstains on the appellant's clothing did not exculpate him; the death sentence was substituted with 30 years imprisonment and 12 strokes of whipping in light of the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023.
Link to JudgmentView Full Judgment

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