The tragedy of a man who killed his wife and was estranged from his children

At the end of January, Nguyen Ngoc Nhan (39 years old) was brought to the Hanoi People's Court for trial on charges ofKillingThe victim was Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Chung - his wife of 20 years.

Nhan sat alone in the courtroom, his face expressionless. Behind him was his wife's family, including his son, holding the portrait of the deceased. The young man had a cold face. They still had not overcome the pain of losing their loved one more than a year ago, and Nhan was the culprit.

Even though he was only two rows away from his son and his former close friends, Nhan never once dared to look back. Their pained looks were like a verdict of conscience accusing him.

In the first minutes of the trial, Nhan surprised the entire audience. The defendant asked to "receive the highest sentence" for the crime he committed against his hard-working wife. Nhan refused the right to have a lawyer defend him, even though he had accepted it during the investigation.

Nhan was originally from another province and came to Hanoi to start a business many years ago. After meeting and marrying Chung, Nhan was loved by his wife's family and treated like a son in the family.

The affection from his wife's family made Nhan forget about living with his wife's family. His brother-in-law, Nguyen Manh Cuong, created favorable conditions for the defendant, giving him a stable job - driving a truck to deliver goods, with a comfortable income, to support his three children's education.

From a man with nothing, Nhan had a wife and children, and was given a piece of land by his maternal family to build a house. His wife also earned money from her job as a nurse at an international hospital.

Everything that was "like a dream" for a grown man suddenly left Nhan's hands. He got involved in social evils and then got into trouble with the law. Nhan had to pay the price with an eight-month prison sentence becauseTheft of property.

It was thought that after the above mistake, Nhan would change his mind, change his character, and turn to the path of goodness for the sake of his wife and children. However, the defendant continued to indulge in gambling, causing many conflicts in their married life.

At around 11pm on August 21, 2018, after returning from watching football at a coffee shop, Nhan did not see Ms. Chung and could not call her, so he went to his mother-in-law's house nearby. Hearing his mother-in-law say Ms. Chung was sleeping, he returned home.

About 10 minutes later, Nhan, angry, went to his mother-in-law's house and shouted, "Chung, if there's anything, let's go home and talk." The wife didn't want the neighbors to judge her, so she told her husband to go home and she would come back later. After waiting 15 minutes, Nhan contacted his wife again and she said she would come back tomorrow morning.

After that, Nhan continued to call his wife. Because she was afraid of her husband, Ms. Chung had to return home in the middle of the night. While they were talking, he suddenly used a kitchen knife to slash his wife many times. Hearing his sister's cry for help, Mr. Cuong went to stop her and was stabbed by Nhan.

Ms. Chung ran to a neighbor's house to hide, but Nhan chased after her and stabbed her multiple times, causing her death. After committing the crime, Nhan went to the cemetery in Dong My commune (Thanh Tri district) to commit suicide, but due to the pain, he abandoned this idea and then went to the police to surrender.

In court, Nhan admitted to what he had done to his wife. The prosecutor shared the pain of loss with the victim’s family. However, she said that the defendant still had children, so he needed to be given a chance to atone for his crimes. The prosecutor only asked for a life sentence for the defendant.

However, the victim’s family, through their lawyer, argued that Nhan’s actions were barbaric, taking the life of the woman he had lived with for 20 years and seriously injuring his brother-in-law. They requested the court to sentence the defendant to the highest penalty possible – the death penalty.

Standing in court, Nhan said he did not deserve to live after committing crimes against Ms. Chung and Mr. Cuong. The defendant will accept any verdict of the court.

While the court deliberated, the whole family and his son left the courtroom. Alone, shivering in the cold, Nhan shed tears. He did not see his son, but from the events at the trial, he knew he was being shunned and would not receive forgiveness.

At the end of the trial that day, Nhan was sentenced to death.