Sentenced to death, 'stepmother' who tortured little girl asks for sentence reduction

It is expected that on April 28, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City will open an appeal trial for defendants Nguyen Vo Quynh Trang and Nguyen Kim Trung Thai.

The appeal hearing was opened following the appeal for a reduction in the sentence of defendant Nguyen Vo Quynh Trang, and the appeal of the victim's representative requesting to change the charge against defendant Nguyen Kim Trung Thai from "Torturing others" to "Murder".

Previously, in November 2022, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Nguyen Vo Quynh Trang to death for "murder" and 3 years in prison for "torturing others", with a combined sentence of death.

Defendant Nguyen Vo Quynh Trang.

Defendant Nguyen Kim Trung Thai was sentenced to 3 years in prison for "torturing others" and 5 years in prison for "concealing a criminal", for a total sentence of 8 years in prison.

According to the first instance verdict, after Thai and his wife divorced, Thai raised their daughter, Nguyen Thai VA (born 2013).

In September 2020, Thai brought his lover Nguyen Vo Quynh Trang to live together as husband and wife at the Topaz 2 Saigon Pearl apartment building (Binh Thanh district).

Around October 2021, due to the Covid-19 epidemic, VA studied online at home, Thai assigned Trang to stay home to take care of and tutor VA.

During the period from December 7 to 22, 2021, Trang repeatedly used her hands, feet, wooden sticks, whips, and metal rods (vacuum cleaner hoses) to brutally beat and torture VA in many different ways, for many days and many hours.

Many times Thai witnessed her lover abusing her daughter. For example, on the afternoon of December 7, 2021, Trang forced VA to kneel down with her hands raised high, and beat her with a cane. Thai sat on the bed and watched, scolding her. Then, Trang forced VA to kneel down and study until 6:28 p.m. before she could get up.

Defendant Nguyen Kim Trung Thai.

The climax was on December 22, 2021, from 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., Trang forced VA to kneel down to do homework so she could check it. Then, from 2:51 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Trang let her sit and study. During this time, Trang did not let her wear clothes and used a wooden stick to hit VA repeatedly.

More brutally, when one hand got tired, Trang switched to the other hand to beat the child. When her hand hurt, Trang put on gloves and continued to beat VA.

Trang also used her feet to continuously kick the child's stomach, hips, back, genitals, or used her hands to hit the child's head and slap his face. While beating Trang, she cursed the child.

At 6pm the same day, the child was unconscious. Trang called Thai to take VA to the emergency room. However, due to severe injuries, VA died.

To cover up his and his lover's cruel actions towards VA, Thai deleted all data from 4 cameras in the apartment.