A soldier who stole a loaded rifle while performing guard duty was sentenced to nine years and two months in jail and ordered to be caned 18 times, dpa reported.
Dave Teo Ming, 20, took the rifle and five rounds of ammunition he had been issued at Singapore's Mandai Hill camp on September 2, 2007, and fled.
He was caught 20 hours later after a massive manhunt with the rifle and bullets at a public toilet.
"My heart hurts for you that so young a man will have to spend some of the best years of his life in prison and have to undergo so many strokes of the cane," The Straits Times quoted High Court Justice Tay Yong Kwang as saying on Monday.
"I hope that this unfortunate and traumatic wrong turn in your life will make you much more mature and a whole lot wiser."
Teo told an army buddy on the phone that he took the rifle to kill his ex-girlfriend, the report said. He later told a pimp that he planned to use it in a robbery.
Then, Teo called his officer and said he wanted to shoot five people and then himself.
Whatever the defendant's motive, Deputy Public Prosecutor Peter Koy called for a "severe sentence."
The "flagrant abuse of life-threatening weapons and ammunition cannot be condoned," Koy said. "Instead of upholding the Oath of Allegiance, the accused broke every paragraph of it."