'Cutting' off the village relationship from... unevenly poured wine glasses!

Bloodshed because of wine, cup full, cup empty

Tam village, Chau Phong commune (Quy Chau district) is peaceful, the people are hard-working. Occasionally, when there is work, the brothers in the village often gather to help each other. After finishing work, the men often drink together, no one expected that one day the drinking party would be the cause of bloodshed between two people who considered each other as brothers.

At noon on September 30, 2019, a group of men from Tam village organized a drinking party. The glasses of wine were filled, and after each emptying, there were handshakes to show solidarity. By the time they finished the fourth bottle of wine, many people had begun to feel the effects of alcohol. At this point, from the word “joint uprising”, the people in the drinking party switched to toasting privately.

Defendant Lu Van Tuong. Photo: Nhu Binh

Conflict also began to arise when Lu Van Tuong poured wine for Ha Van Ngoc. “If you pour, pour evenly, your cup is half full and mine is full. Let’s drink equally, if we get drunk, we’ll get drunk together. Pouring like this is not good,” Ngoc said. Instead of pouring more wine into his cup to fill it, Lu Van Tuong also got angry and told Ngoc “if you don’t want to drink, then don’t drink.” Seeing that the situation seemed tense, the people at the drinking table decided to stop the drinking party and go home.

Picking up each other's glasses of wine, Mr. Ha Van Ngoc became disabled. Photo: Nhu Binh

As Tuong stepped down to the ground, Ngoc stood on the stilt house, stuck his neck out the window and declared, "I'm not related to you anymore" and made obscene gestures. Angry at Ngoc's actions, Tuong ran back up the house, conveniently grabbing a knife that was leaning against the wall. Seeing Tuong running up with the knife, Ngoc stood at the top of the stairs and swung his arm, but the punch missed, causing the man to lose his footing.

Immediately, Lu Van Tuong swung his knife and slashed Ngoc repeatedly in the head and body. The incident happened so quickly that the people there did not have time to intervene. Only when Tuong and Ngoc struggled and fell down the stairs did witnesses rush in to pull Tuong out. Ngoc was taken to the hospital with multiple injuries to his head, face, and hands.

Broken village love, bankrupt family

The blow to the head caused Mr. Ngoc to suffer a traumatic brain injury, leaving him unconscious for a month. When he regained consciousness, the carpenter was shocked to find that his left arm had almost lost its ability to work. His health had seriously declined due to the after-effects of the injury, and from being the breadwinner of the family, Mr. Ngoc became a burden to his wife and children. Mr. Ngoc spent two months in the hospital, spending nearly 100 million VND, making his already poor family situation even more difficult.

Meanwhile, due to poverty, Lu Van Tuong decided to marry a woman who was almost half a generation older than him and agreed to live with his wife's family. When their child was born, the couple decided to live separately. Apart from a tiny, dilapidated house and a few meters of rice fields, Tuong and his wife had almost no valuable assets.

Defendant Lu Van Tuong's wife is worried about the debt burden from her husband's crimes. Photo: Nhu Binh

“Normally, Tuong would do whatever he was hired to do, and I would go peel acacia bark in the neighboring commune. That day, while I was in the forest, someone called and said, ‘Your husband hacked someone, come back and take care of it.’ When I got home, Ngoc had already been taken to the emergency room. That evening, my husband turned himself in, and I borrowed 2 million VND to go to the hospital to take care of Ngoc,” said Lu Van Tuong’s wife. After buying Ngoc a few things, she invited his relatives to eat a bowl of pho to show her concern, hoping that people would sympathize with her situation. It was the first time that woman dared to eat a bowl of pho in the city at the hospital gate, which cost 25,000 VND...

“Later, I gave Ngoc’s wife another 900,000. I really didn’t have any extra money, not that I didn’t want to help my husband overcome the consequences. I borrowed nearly 3 million,” Lu Van Tuong’s wife explained. Today, the court heard the case, but she went alone because having another person go would add another expense. This miserable woman said she could only scrape together a little money to send her husband, 300,000 VND in deposit money, plus the food allowance provided by the prison. Even with that amount of money, the mother and her three children had to tighten their belts.

Now she has to worry about compensation for the other family, she doesn't know what to do. "My husband committed a crime, I have to compensate him, I know that but there is no other way. Without money, I don't dare go back and forth because I'm afraid they will ask for it but I don't have it to give", she looked at her young husband as if blaming his anger for pushing the three of them into this miserable situation.

Mr. Ngoc suffered 65% health damage. The victim did not die, but Lu Van Tuong's act of using a weapon to hit another person's head and neck was enough to constitute the crime of "Murder". At the trial, Lu Van Tuong admitted his crime but did not admit to "Murder" as charged by the Provincial People's Procuracy. According to the reasoning of this illiterate man, a person who has not died cannot be called a murderer. "Mr. Ngoc was injured, so the defendant is only guilty of Intentional Infliction of Injury. The defendant does not agree with the prosecution of the Procuracy", Lu Van Tuong argued at the trial. It took a lot of time to explain, but the panel of judges still could not change the defendant Tuong's perception of the crime.

As a victim, Mr. Ngoc requested the panel of judges to sentence defendant Tuong to a very severe sentence, and at the same time force Tuong to compensate for mental and health damage and medical expenses caused by the consequences of the defendant's actions.

“In this case, it is not that the victim is not at fault. Drinking a few glasses of wine together for fun is not forbidden, but drinking a bottle for each person is harmful to health, unable to control one's behavior, and losing the sense of neighborliness. Many murders are also caused by alcohol. The victim is older, his behavior is not proper, and when the other person has already left, he still speaks vulgarly and acts in an uncultured manner, leading to the current situation. The incident happened, he was lucky not to die, but the consequences are long-lasting, his health is affected, he loses the ability to work. Just because of a few drops of wine, the whole family fell into a difficult situation, does the victim think it is worth it?”. Hearing the old judge analyze his mistake, Ha Van Ngoc bowed his head in silence.

Since the incident, the wife has had to take care of the family's finances, and has had to run around to pay for the medical expenses. The financial burden and the burden of supporting the family have aged her by a dozen years. Although he has undergone a major surgery, Ngoc still needs a brain transplant, but she still does not know where to get the money. Looking at the family situation of the defendant Tuong's wife, she knows that the compensation that the jury will award will never be received, and may never be received to cover the costs of continuing her husband's treatment.

Defendant Lu Van Tuong was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “Murder”. Photo: Nhu Binh

Although the defendant Lu Van Tuong did not agree with the charges brought by the Provincial People's Procuracy, based on the evidence, investigation documents, statements of the defendant, the victim and witnesses, the panel of judges determined that the People's Procuracy's prosecution of Lu Van Tuong was the right person, the right crime, and the right law. The fact that Mr. Ha Van Ngoc did not die was beyond the defendant's subjective will. Considering the entire case, the panel of judges sentenced Lu Van Tuong to 12 years in prison and ordered the defendant to compensate Mr. Ha Van Ngoc for treatment costs, mental and physical damage in the amount of more than 120 million VND.

The consequences of alcohol on the families of defendant Lu Van Tuong and victim Ha Van Ngoc are too obvious. However, perhaps this obvious lesson will not make the presence of alcohol bottles disappear in many highland villages in the near future!