Man stabs someone to death after believing they were being stared at disrespectfully.
While drinking beer with his friend Ho Ngoc Sao, Nguyen Van The looked over at the next table and said to two other young men, "Why are you giving us those dirty looks?", leading to a conflict between the two sides.
On August 9th, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial to hear the case against defendants Ho Ngoc Sao (born in 1986) and Nguyen Van The (born in 1994), both residing in Hung Phuc commune, Hung Nguyen district, on charges of "murder".
The two defendants, Nguyen Viet Cuong (born in 1999) and Nguyen The Vu (born in 2001), residing in Hung Phuc commune, are charged with "concealing a crime".
According to the indictment, on the evening of May 8, 2023, Sao and The went to drink beer at a bar in Hung Nhan commune, Hung Nguyen district. Around 9 PM, Mr. Nguyen Xuan H. (born in 1980, residing in Hung Thanh commune) and his group of friends came to have coffee.
While drinking beer, The looked over and said to Mr. H., "Why are you giving me that dirty look?" A friend of Mr. H. replied, "Nothing, uncle." A short while later, Mr. H. and his friend came over with a pipe and a plastic chair to attack The and Sao, so both of them ran away.
On the way home, The and Sao called their group of friends, including Nguyen The Vu and Nguyen Viet Cuong, asking them to pick them up. When they met, Sao told everyone that she and The had been beaten up and had to run away, and that their motorbike and phone were left at the shop, so she asked them to help retrieve them.
Before setting off, Sao and The both armed themselves with homemade knives. As the group was walking, they encountered the shop owner who warned them that there were many people on the other side. Hearing this, their friends were scared and didn't dare go any further, leaving only The and Sao to continue.
At that moment, H.'s group was standing in front of the shop. When they saw Sao and The approaching with weapons, they picked up stones and threw them while running away. Seeing this, The chased after H.'s group with a knife, but it was too late.
When Sao ran into the shop, she saw Mr. H. there. The two men wrestled with each other, and Sao stabbed Mr. H. three times in both thighs with a knife, causing acute hemorrhagic shock due to the wounds puncturing arteries. Although the victim was rushed to the hospital, he died.
After stabbing the victim, Sao told The, Cuong, and Vu about the incident. At this point, Vu took the knife Sao had used in the crime and his own pig-slaughtering knife and threw them into the canal. Cuong also took The's pig-slaughtering knife and threw it into the canal to destroy the evidence.
Later, Cuong lent Sao and The his motorbike to escape, hindering the investigation and the search for evidence. On July 5th and 7th, 2023, The and Sao surrendered to the police.
At the trial, the defendants admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment and expressed remorse, asking the court to consider mitigating circumstances and reduce their sentences.
After considering the role of each defendant in the case, the panel of judges sentenced defendant Ho Ngoc Sao to 19 years in prison and Nguyen Van The to 15 years in prison for "murder". For the crime of "concealing a crime", defendants Nguyen Viet Cuong and Nguyen The Vu received sentences ranging from 7 to 9 months in prison.
