Man who beat friend with a rake sentenced to 5 years in prison.

On August 29th, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance criminal trial to hear the case against Ta Danh Quan (born in 1984), residing in Nghia Binh commune, Tan Ky district, for the crime of "murder".

According to the indictment, on March 30, after drinking alcohol at the construction site of the Nghia Binh commune People's Committee headquarters, Ta Danh Quan and Tang Dinh Hung (born in 1994, residing in the same commune) went home.

Defendant Ta Danh Quan in court. Photo: Nguyen Duong

About 30 minutes later, Hung called Quan to his house, and then Hung invited Quan to go to the house of Mr. Chu Van Mien (born in 1942, residing in the same commune) to talk about the incident where Mr. Mien's son, Chu Van Thien, injured two of Hung's goats.

Upon arrival, Quân waited outside while Hưng went inside to talk to Mr. Miên and Mrs. Bình (Mr. Miên's wife). During the conversation, seeing Hưng raising his voice, Mrs. Bình called the Nghĩa Bình commune police to come and resolve the situation.

Seeing this, Ta Dinh Hung and Ta Danh Quan went back to Hung's house, and Quan went to sleep. When he woke up, Quan wanted to leave, but Hung held him back and wanted them to go to Thien's house to continue talking. Ta Danh Quan said, "It's late now, I've been working all day and I'm tired, let me go home," but Hung still kept his motorbike and wouldn't let Quan leave.

Quân pushed Hưng away, and a scuffle ensued between the two. Hưng picked up a bamboo stick and hit Quân twice on the right bicep. Enraged by the attack, Quân grabbed a four-pronged rake and swung it around the motorbike from above, hitting Hưng on the head and causing him to collapse to the ground.

Not stopping there, Quan continued to hit Hung twice more in the head, shouting as he did so, "I'll beat you to death."

Seeing the altercation, Hung's mother ran out to intervene and wrestled the rake away from him, causing Quan to stop and speed off on his motorbike. Later, Quan surrendered to the Tan Ky District police. Hung, seriously injured, was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment with a fractured skull and brain hematoma. He was discharged on April 11th and returned home.

According to the forensic examination results, the wound on the left temple of Mr. Tang Dinh Hung caused a traumatic brain injury, resulting in a 39% impairment of his health at the time of the examination.

At the trial, defendant Ta Danh Quan confessed honestly and showed remorse for his actions. The victim's family also requested a reduced sentence for the defendant. After committing the crime, the defendant's family partially compensated the victim's family for the damages.

Based on the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the court sentenced the defendant Ta Danh Quan to 5 years in prison for the crime of "murder".