Murder due to… honking and not avoiding!

Killing people in a moment of anger

More than 6 months have passed but people living near the largest landfill in Nghe An province are still haunted by the murder that happened there. The perpetrator was a garbage truck driver, and the victim was a man who made his living by collecting trash.

According to the indictment,Nguyen Chi Tuanis a contract driver of Vinh City Environmental Development Company Limited. On the afternoon of March 3, 2022, while driving a garbage truck to dump at the waste treatment plant area in Hamlet 2, Nghi Yen Commune (Nghi Loc), Nguyen Chi Tuan saw many people so he honked his car horn to make way for the car to enter. Among them was Mr. Ho Sy Tr. (born in 1985), residing in Hamlet 2, Nghi Yen Commune (Nghi Loc), who was picking up scrap at the landfill. However, after Tuan honked, Mr. Trieu still did not avoid causing a conflict between the two sides.

Because everyone tried to stop him, Tuan climbed into the cabin of his car. Mr. Tr. left and stood behind Tuan's car. After a while, Tuan found a pair of scissors in the car and jumped out of the car to show off to the other person. The two sides continued to argue and fight. When Mr. Tr. tried to hit Tuan, the other person used scissors to stab Mr. Tr., causing the victim to collapse and die. According to the autopsy results, the victim died of acute circulatory failure due to a penetrating wound in the neck area.

After discovering that Mr. Tr. had died, Tuan abandoned his car and hid in the mountainous area behind the landfill. At 6:30 p.m. the same day, Nguyen Chi Tuan turned himself in to the police and confessed to his crime.

The compassion of a father who lost his child

The victim's father has asked for a lighter sentence for the man who took his son's life. Photo: Tran Vu

On September 7, 2022, the People's Court of Nghe An province brought defendant Nguyen Chi Tuan (born 1994), residing in Long Hoa hamlet, Hung Dong commune (Vinh city) to trial for the crime of "Murder".

Sitting in the victim’s representative seat was a man with dark skin, in his sixties. He was the victim’s father. Throughout the court session, he bowed his head from time to time because when mentioning the defendant’s crimes, it was like knives stabbing into his heart, causing him pain.

However, when he was given the chance to speak, he asked for a reduced sentence for the defendant. The pain of the son he gave birth to, raised with so much hope but was murdered by Tuan was still there. However, with humanity and tolerance, he suppressed that pain and asked the court to give the defendant a chance to correct his mistakes. The father also hoped that tolerance would instill kindness in the murderer.

“My child is gone, now even if the defendant is sentenced to five more years in prison or however many years, my child will not be brought back to life. We forgive him, only hoping that the defendant will realize his mistakes and change and become a human being. This life needs humanity,” the defendant’s father said, choking with emotion. Hearing his words, defendant Tuan bowed his head and remained silent.

During the trial, the victim's wife wore black clothes, a mourning scarf, and held her 2-year-old child in her arms outside the courtroom. Since her husband was murdered, she has been raising 3 children who are still in school age. As soon as her husband was mentioned, her eyes filled with tears because she felt sorry for him, for herself, and for her children. She said that because of their difficult life, the couple always tried to work hard. She worked as a factory worker while her husband collected trash to sell for money. "The work was tiring and smelly, but he always worked hard. However, because of a small conflict, he was deprived of his right to live. Now the mother is a widow with orphaned children, the house is empty because of the absence of a breadwinner," the victim's wife lamented.

Severe sentence

Before the witness stand, defendant Tuan confessed honestly, admitting to the crime as charged in the indictment. When questioned by the court about the cause ofmurder case, Tuan admitted that the conflict in the case was very trivial. “The defendant was angry because when he honked, Mr. Tr. did not move away to let the garbage truck move. During the fight, because of his temper and not being able to control himself, the defendant “accidentally did it,” Tuan explained his act of murder.

Regarding the murder weapon, the defendant stated that the scissors were already in the cabin. He left the scissors in the car to “fix the wiring” and did not intend to bring them. In a fit of anger, the defendant committed the murder.

Tuan turned to apologize to the victim's family for his hot temper, not being able to control himself and "accidentally" killing someone. Photo: Tran Vu

In the presence of the victim's family, Tuan turned to apologize. At the same time, the defendant also presented his family's difficult circumstances, the couple had been married for 7 years but had no children, asking the court to consider reducing his sentence. The defendant explained that he had been a contract driver for the company since 2013 with a salary of 6 to 7 million VND/month. Life was difficult, so after the incident, the defendant's family had to sell land to pay for partial compensation for the victim's family, hoping for a chance to reduce Tuan's sentence.

After the trial, the Trial Panel determined that the defendant’s murder was a hooligan act and should be severely punished. However, it is also necessary to consider some mitigating circumstances for the defendant because he surrendered, confessed honestly, repented, and his family voluntarily remedied some of the consequences for the victim. Considering the case as a whole, the court sentenced defendant Nguyen Chi Tuan to 16 years in prison for “Murder”. As for the civil matter, because both families had already resolved it, the court did not consider it.

The trial ended, Tuan quickly turned back to say goodbye to his relatives, while the victim's family sadly left. Although the pain of a father losing a child, a wife losing a husband, a child losing a father was still there, they chose to forgive. Forgive so that those left behind can live more peacefully, forgive so that the guilty person can realize their mistakes, forgive so that only humanity remains.

Hopefully, the tolerance and generosity of the victim’s father will help Tuan realize his sins and turn to goodness. Hopefully, this will be a lesson for many people so that they do not regret a moment of anger and lose their mind, and then pay a heavy price with months in prison.