The tragedy of an international student robbing the wrong house of a police general's daughter

During the trial at the People's Court of Ha Tinh City (Ha Tinh) three weeks ago, Le Dinh Kien (29 years old, resident of Thach Linh ward) cried continuously, bowed his head and admitted that because of blind love, he robbed property, pushing his whole family into tragedy. Below the hall, some people sighed, regretting that the young, highly educated man, just because of a few moments of immature thinking, got into trouble with the law.

With a scholarly appearance, wearing glasses, a worried and scared face, Kien said he was studying economics in China. Every time he returned home, he saw his father and mother often arguing and quarreling, so he felt very sad and missed his mother. The thought flashed through his mind to steal money to buy a house and take his mother to live somewhere else.

The defendant stated that at the end of 2017, when returning to Vietnam from China, the car stopped in Lang Son and went to the market to buy a bundle of zip ties, an electric flashlight, and a folding knife. Upon returning home in Thach Linh ward, Kien continued to buy a fruit knife, dark long-sleeved clothes, and sneakers, then hid them in the house, waiting for an opportunity to use them to steal property.

In early May, Kien walked along Ha Tinh city looking for a target. When passing through Song Da Urban Area, he saw that Ms. Quy's house had a modern design, with two cars parked under it, and a fence with trees interspersed outside, making it easy to break in, so he went around observing, knowing the way to and from the house to attack. He then brought the weapon and placed it on the side of the road, 200 meters from Ms. Quy's house, then went home to sleep, waiting for late at night to commit the crime.

At around 2:00 a.m. on May 9, Kien walked from his house to where the murder weapon was kept, wearing dark clothes, sneakers, a hat, and a mask, then climbed over a tree and jumped into Quy's garden. Kien opened the door to enter the house but was unable to get in, so he sat and waited outside. At 5:30 a.m., when Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuan (the maid) opened the door, Kien rushed in, put a knife to her neck, and demanded that she be taken to see the female homeowner.

The judge asked, when holding the knife, if the family members fought back, how would the defendant have acted? Kien replied that at that time he told Ms. Quy, "Calm down, I just want to take the money and leave." When the female homeowner said she had no money, Kien immediately asked, "Whose are the two cars in the yard?" Ms. Quy replied, "They were given to me by my grandparents."

After taking 75 million VND, Kien discovered a safe in the corner of the room so he asked to open it. Seeing that the savings book had a lot of money, he forced her to withdraw it. Ms. Quy said: "You can only withdraw no more than 100 million VND in a day", Kien said: "Withdraw as much as you can".

To be safe, Kien took another phone and put it in Quy's pocket, saying that he had "installed surveillance software" and asked her to connect to FaceTime to record the withdrawal. Kien threatened that if the police were called, they should not blame him for being "indifferent" to the four hostages being held in the house: two children, father-in-law (about 60 years old) and the maid.

Present in court, Ms. Quy said that when she saw Kien enter the room, she was very scared, because she was worried that the two children would be harmed, so she followed the requests. Being allowed to go out to withdraw money, she thought this was a great opportunity to contact her relatives. Waiting for a moment of carelessness, without the robber's observation, this woman promptly reported to her father, Major General Tran Cong Truong (Deputy Chief of Office of the Ministry of Public Security).

Mr. Truong was in Ha Tinh at the time, so he called two more policemen to his daughter's house. After failing to contact Ms. Quy, Kien looked through the window and saw three men at the gate. Knowing that he had been discovered, he asked all the hostages to be quiet. While he was struggling to find a way to deal with the situation, Mr. Truong rushed in, grabbed his hands, took away his weapon, kicked the bathroom door, and subdued him.

At the trial, Mr. Truong and the people who directly caught the robbers requested to be absent. On the defendant's side, there were only his parents, but they kept bowing their heads in the middle of the table, crying, unable to say a word. After the interrogation, Ms. Quy and the maid asked for a lighter sentence for Kien so that he could have a chance to correct his mistakes.

"The defendant is highly educated. If he loved his mother, he should have tried to finish his studies to earn money, then deal with everything later. Now he has no money, his future is at a dead end, his relatives are living in pain and torment. Isn't that more pitiful?", a judge said, adding that this is also a lesson for many parents in resolving family conflicts.

Having the last word, Kien cried, apologized to his parents and the victim's family, and hoped the court would be lenient so he could soon return to rebuild his life.

Sentenced to 7 years in prison for crimeRobberyKien bowed his head and walked out of the van, only having time to look back at his old mother standing absentmindedly in the middle of the court yard wiping away her tears.