Two young men were stabbed to death overnight because they failed to invite them to drink.

On June 16, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of Nguyen Xuan Ngoc (born 2001), residing in Hamlet 7, Dien Tho Commune, Dien Chau District, for the crime of "Murder".

Ngoc is a worker at a company based in Hanoi. On December 12, 2019, Ngoc returned to his hometown from Hanoi for a military service examination. At around 9:30 p.m. on December 16, while drinking coffee, Ngoc asked his friend Hoang Trung (born in 1999) to take him to Highway 1A to catch a bus to Hanoi.
Ngoc then went home first to pack her luggage, including a fruit knife. When everything was ready, Ngoc called Trung to pick her up to catch a bus. At that time, Trung was eating snails with his friend from Dien Tho commune. When Trung was about to get up to leave to pick Ngoc up, Cao Thai D. (born in 1997, Dien Trung commune), Le Van A. (born in 2000) and Cao Van Ch. (born in 1994, both living in Dien An commune) came to toast.

Defendant at trial. Photo: Tran Vu

Seeing Trung get up to leave, D., A., Ch. followed, stopped the car and said: "Why did you come here to invite me to drink and then leave?" Trung replied: "I have to go pick up my friend to catch the bus to Hanoi, when I get back I will drink with your family." After that, Trung went to Ngoc's house to pick her up.

While moving to Highway 1A, Trung stopped his car in front of the snail restaurant to say goodbye to his friend. Then, Trung drove Ngoc along the inter-commune road towards Dien Tho - Dien Loc. Seeing that, D., A., Ch. also got on their motorbikes and chased after them.

When he caught up, Trung stopped his car and asked the group of young men, “What’s the matter?” At this time, A. said, “Do you like to tease?” and then used his hand to hit Trung on the head. Being hit, Trung used both hands to cover his head.

Seeing his friend being beaten, Ngoc got out of the car, took out a knife and said: "What happened that you beat my friend?" D. then hit him in the head. Feeling hurt, Ngoc took out the knife and stabbed the group of young men randomly.

A large number of people attended the court. Photo: Tran Vu

Ngoc's stab wound caused Mr. D. and Mr. A. to die from perforated heart and lungs.

After stabbing someone, Ngoc took a bus to Hanoi. On December 17, 2019, after thinking about his actions, Ngoc took a bus back to his hometown to surrender to the police.

At the trial, defendant Ngoc admitted to his crime. Ngoc said that he was attacked for no reason and could not control his actions. After causing the incident, Ngoc had influenced his relatives to compensate the families of the victims.
The panel of judges determined that the defendant committed the crime in a case provoked by the illegal acts of the victims. Considering the case as a whole, the court sentenced Nguyen Xuan Ngoc to life in prison for murder.

The defendant is required to compensate the victim Le Van A's family nearly 150 million VND, compensate Cao Thai Duong's family 146 million VND, and compensate Cao Van Chuyen more than 45 million VND.