Beating a boatman to death because of a conflict over house construction
Sy reminded the carpenter who was making the wooden door behind schedule, working one day and taking the other day off. After that, the two sides had an argument. In a fit of anger, Sy took a wooden stick and hit the carpenter on the head, causing the victim to die.
On June 18, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened the first instance trial of defendant Nguyen Van Sy (born 1984), residing in Minh Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district (Nghe An) for the crime of murder.
The indictment shows that around November 2024, Sy built a house and hired Nguyen Khac Th. (born in 1977), residing in Bai Son commune, Do Luong district, Nghe An (his brother-in-law married to Sy's sister-in-law) to work as a carpenter to make wooden doors for the family.
At first, Mr. Th. worked regularly, but then he started working one day and then another day off, not continuously. Because Tet was approaching, Sy reminded him that he would not be able to meet the deadline, but Mr. Th. did not listen.
Besides, during the process of coming to work, Sy saw Mr. Th. laughing and having fun with his wife many times, so he was upset and suspected that the rower had feelings for his wife. However, Sy did not show any attitude and did not say this.
On the morning of January 11, 2025, Mr. Th. came to Sy's house to do carpentry as usual. Seeing Mr. Th. sitting drinking water without working, Sy said: "Get up and go to work or it will be noon." Mr. Th. replied: "It's up to me whether I work or not."
At noon that same day, seeing Mr. Th. frame the door crookedly, Sy said: "Do it right, it's crooked." Sy also reminded Mr. Th. to speed up the work. Hearing that, Th. replied: "If you wanted it to be fast, why didn't you ask someone else to do it first?"
After that, the two sides exchanged words. Mr. Th. pushed Sy away and said: "I won't do it anymore."
Suddenly, Sy took a wooden stick and hit Mr. Th. three times in the back of the head, causing him to collapse on the spot. The victim was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment but died from a fractured skull, brain hemorrhage, and brain edema.
After beating his brother, Sy went to the backyard to drink weed killer but was discovered by his family and taken to the hospital.
At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime. The defendant stated that the reason for beating the victim was because of a conflict over the slow progress of the house construction, "working one day and taking the other off".
Regarding the reason for suspecting the victim had feelings for his wife, at the trial the defendant denied it.
After the incident, the defendant’s family compensated the victim’s representative 103 million VND. The victim did not request anything more regarding civil matters. However, at the trial, the victim’s representative requested more than 230 million VND in compensation.
In the presence of the victim's representative, the defendant apologized and hoped to receive forgiveness.
Considering the defendant’s actions as dangerous to society, violating the law and committing the crime of Murder, the panel sentenced defendant Nguyen Van Sy to 19 years in prison. Regarding the civil aspect, the court ordered the defendant to compensate the victim’s family an additional 200 million VND.
