Younger brother had a conflict with his neighbor, older brother tried to stop him but was stabbed to death

On March 23, at the People's Court of Nghe An province, the Hanoi High People's Court opened a criminal appeal trial of defendant Tran Dinh Luong for the crime of "Killing”. The trial was opened due to the defendant's appeal.

The case file shows that at around 9:00 p.m. on May 8, Tran Dinh Luong went to his neighbor's house to hang out and drink some water. Nguyen Cong Hoan was sitting with Luong. While talking, Luong bet with Hoan "whose tractor is stronger", and whoever lost would have to pay a case of beer. At 10:00 p.m. the same day, Luong was driving the tractor home when he collided with Minh's motorbike. Minh beat Luong. Luong went home to put away the tractor and came back to buy a case of beer from the shop owner to apologize to Minh, but Minh did not accept. Luong and Minh argued. Minh then called his brother, Phan Trong V, for help.

Upon arriving, V. pointed at Luong and said, “You’re new here and you’re being so rude.” “What do you want?” Luong replied. Seeing this, the people present immediately tried to stop him and advised Luong to go home. However, Luong went home, took a knife, went back to the neighbor’s house, and stabbed V.

Mr. V. was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment but died on the way. The cause of death was determined to be respiratory failure and acute circulatory failure due to a wound that penetrated the left lung and aorta.

Defendant Tran Dinh Luong. Photo: Tran Vu

At the first instance trial, the defendant admitted to the murder. The first instance court sentenced Tran Dinh Luong to life in prison. In the civil case, the court ordered the defendant to pay 179 million VND in compensation and 1 million VND in support for the victim’s parents.

The defendant then filed an appeal for a reduced sentence. At the appeals court, defendant Luong presented details of having participated in a chase of a dog thief with local residents, and had confiscated some items such as dog catching tools. The defendant presented his difficult circumstances, his family being poor, to request a reduced sentence.

The Court of Appeal found that, although the defendant had presented some new mitigating circumstances at today’s hearing, the defendant’s murder was serious and of a hooligan nature. Therefore, the Court of Appeal rejected the defendant’s appeal and upheld Tran Dinh Luong’s life sentence.