26 years old, 5 times in and out of prison

(Baonghean.vn) - On October 22, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a criminal appeal trial following the appeal of Cao Xuan Men, born in 1986, residing in Le Loi ward, Vinh city, for the crime of intentionally causing injury.

Although only 26 years old, Cao Xuan Men has a long history of crimes such as theft, fraud, gambling and this time was fined for intentionally causing injury.

Escorting defendant Cao Xuan Men at the trial

Speaking of Cao Xuan Men, residing in block 15, Le Loi ward, Vinh city, almost everyone in the block here is "afraid" of the bad behavior he caused. Being a Vinh man, tall and handsome, but Men's forte is liking delicious food, dressing well, but being lazy.

To have money to spend according to his hobbies, Cao Xuan Men thought of stealing property. To avoid public attention, Men went to Hanoi to steal.And what had to happen happened, on June 16, 2005, for the first time in his life, Cao Xuan Men was sentenced to 9 months in prison by the People's Court of Dong Da District, Hanoi City for the crime of theft of property. At that time, Men was only 19 years old.

It was thought that after being caught up in the law, Men would reform and correct his crimes, becoming a good citizen, useful to society. Unexpectedly, after being released from prison, on July 31, 2006, Cao Xuan Men was once again sentenced by the People's Court of Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi City, to 9 months in prison, also for theft of property.

After serving his prison sentence, Cao Xuan Men changed his "business" direction to make money in another profession.So he gave up the path of theft and turned to fraud.

And for the third time, a man who preferred prison to a life of free labor, Cao Xuan Men, paid a heavy price after being sentenced by the People's Court of Vinh City to 15 months in prison for fraud and property appropriation on March 19, 2010.

In April 2011, Men was released from prison and returned to his hometown with 3 previous convictions, and was classified as a "blacklist" in Le Loi ward, Vinh city. In the days after his release from prison, Cao Xuan Men showed that he had improved a lot, rarely going out at night, and his neighbors were happy for him.

But only 8 months later, on December 18, 2012, for the fourth time, Cao Xuan Men was sentenced by the Vinh City People's Court to 15 months in prison for gambling. After the third time of committing this crime, Cao Xuan Men was released on bail and filed an appeal for a reduced sentence. While waiting for the appeals court to decide, on April 14, 2013, Cao Xuan Men was once again detained by the Vinh City Police for intentionally causing injury, after using a weapon to stab Nguyen Van Cuong multiple times because of a small conflict.

Specifically, at around 4:00 p.m. on February 22, 2013, Cao Xuan Men went to Mr. Vuong's motorbike repair shop on Truong Chinh Street, Block 13, Le Loi Ward, Vinh City to play. At this time, Mr. Nguyen Van Cuong also came here for personal business.

While talking, Men and Cuong got into a fight and were later stopped by everyone. Men stood up and took his motorbike to go home. It was thought that the fight between Men and Cuong would end there. Unexpectedly, on the way home, passing the Vinh train station market gate, Men took out two Thai fruit knives, put them in his pocket and returned to stab Cuong.

Arriving at the place, seeing Cuong standing there talking, Men parked his motorbike, holding two Thai knives in both hands and rushed to stab Cuong. Seeing that, Cuong ran over, grabbed a water pipe for self-defense and fought back. But before Cuong could attack, Men rushed in and stabbed him in the left shoulder. Cuong collapsed to the ground. Men, like a hungry beast, continued to stab Cuong many times with the knife.

After committing the crime, Cao Xuan Men threw away the two knives and leisurely rode home on his motorbike. On February 28, 2013, Mr. Cuong was discharged from the hospital and requested the Vinh City police to assess the degree of disability and request prosecution of Cao Xuan Men.

According to the conclusion of the Nghe An Forensic Center, the disability rate of Nguyen Van Cuong due to the slashing of defendant Cao Xuan Men was 41%. With the collected evidence, on April 11, 2013, the Vinh City Police Department issued an arrest warrant for Cao Xuan Men for the crime of "Intentionally causing injury". After completing the case file, the Vinh City People's Court brought the case to trial and sentenced defendant Cao Xuan Men to 6 years and 6 months in prison for the above crime.

After the verdict, Men filed an appeal to reduce his prison sentence. On October 22, 2013, the People's Court of Nghe An province brought the case to the second instance trial based on the appeal of defendant Cao Xuan Men. After reviewing the content and details of the case, considering that the defendant's actions were extremely serious, infringing on the health and life of the victim, the defendant had a bad personal history; the circumstances requesting a sentence reduction were not new, for the above reasons, the Trial Panel rejected the appeal, upheld the first instance judgment and sentenced Cao Xuan Men to 6 years and 6 months in prison.

Le Binh