TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Taiwan's High Court today ruled that the drugs a rich socialite, Andy Chu (朱家龍), and his fellow defendants supplied at a drug party did not have a direct causal relationship with the death of a model at the W Hotel in 2016 and handed down a reduced sentence of 2 years and 10 months in prison to the convicted scion, while releasing him on NT$1 million (US$32,000).

The father of the deceased model said he was stunned when he heard the verdict and said he would contact his lawyers to learn more about the situation, reported CNA. The man's lawyer Wu Meng-liang (吳孟良) said that although the parties have reconciled, his client was still shocked by the verdict.

Wu told the news agency that, in general, when the two sides have reconciled, an appeal is usually not filed for a verdict. However, family members may still discuss a potential appeal and the prosecution has not yet announced whether it will file for an appeal.

Chu was accused of booking a hotel room in W Hotel on Dec. 2, 2016 and inviting his friends surnamed Tsai (蔡) and Hung (洪) to hold a drug party. Models, including a 21-year-old woman surnamed Kuo (郭) were invited to attend and were given a large number of candies laced with drugs.

When she fell ill, Chu allegedly tried to cover up the drug party, had Kuo injected with a substance to play down her overdose, and had the hotel room cleaned up. Two men at the party took the model by taxi to a hospital, but due to her deteriorating condition, she was transferred to another hospital, where she died on Dec. 7 of that year.

Investigators found that Kuo had died after having consumed at least eight different types of narcotics.

Chu is a wealthy socialite and the son of a former school director from Taoyuan who reportedly sold uniforms to schools.

In the first trial, Chu was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法), while Tsai and Hong were sentenced to 10 years and 10 years six months, respectively. However, in October of last year, the Supreme Court rejected the 10-year prison sentence for Chu, and the case was tried again in Taiwan's High Court.

The Supreme Court ruled that it was impossible to tell whether the drugs Kuo used had come from Chu, and said that allegations of a possible link between the woman’s death and a previous health condition had not been sufficiently investigated.