Stabbed to death for asking 'why are you sitting drinking beer in the middle of the street'

Nghe An Provincial People's Court has just opened a first-instance criminal trial of Luong Van Trieu (born 2000) and Le Van Hong (born 2002), both residing in Luc Da commune, Con Cuong district, for the crime of "Murder".

In September 2019, Trieu, Hong and 3 friends went to peel acacia trees for hire for a family in Lang Son commune (Anh Son district). At around 7:00 p.m. on September 12, 2019, the two went to the house of a friend named Thanh to drink. After drinking, Thanh drove Trieu and Hong home. At this time, seeing the group of friends going to Tri Le bridge (crossing Khai Son and Lang Son communes) to play, Trieu and his group went there together.

2 defendants in court. Photo: Tran Vu

Before arriving, Hong took a thumb drive from his bag and put it in his pants, while his friend bought 10 more cans of beer. After that, the group sat in the middle of Tri Le bridge drinking beer and talking.

At around 9pm the same day, Chu Van Tr. (born in 1990, residing in Lang Son commune) drove his friend across Tri Le bridge. When he met Trieu's group, Tr. stopped the car and asked "what are you doing here?". Hong replied "we are sitting here drinking beer". Tr. asked back "why are you sitting in the middle of the road drinking beer", Hong stood up and said "what do you like" and pulled out a switchblade.

Seeing that, Tr. immediately asked what he was holding. Trieu grabbed a beer can and threw it at Tr. with his right hand, snatched the knife from Hong. Trieu stabbed Tr. in the left chest with the knife. After being stabbed, Tr. and his friend ran away, but Trieu and Hong continued to chase after him. During the chase, Trieu threw a knife at Tr. but missed.

When the knife fell, Hong picked it up and stabbed Tr. in the back, causing the victim to die on the way to the emergency room. The cause of Tr.'s death was determined to be respiratory failure and circulatory failure due to a wound in the left chest that penetrated the lung.

At the trial, the two defendants admitted their crimes and asked for a reduced sentence. In this case, the two defendants had mitigating circumstances: they turned themselves in, committed the crime for the first time, and had influenced their families to compensate the victim's family. The victim's family representative filed a petition for a reduced sentence for the defendants.

Considering the case as a whole, the court sentenced Luong Van Trieu to 20 years in prison and Le Van Hong to 12 years in prison for "Murder".