Sentenced to 18 years in prison for shooting to 'warn' neighbors

After a lengthy deliberation, on May 30, the People's Court of Nghe An province sentenced defendant Cao Dang Hanh (born 1986), residing in Hamlet 5, Minh Thanh Commune (Yen Thanh District) for the crime of "murder".

Previously, on December 25, 2023, due to his hobby of shooting birds, Cao Dang Hanh bought two air guns that shot lead bullets with lengths of 90 cm and 83.2 cm respectively from a man of unknown origin for 7 million VND.

At around 12 noon on December 30, 2023, Cao Dang Hanh wanted to go bird shooting, so he took an 83.2 cm long gun to a neighbor's house to pump air into it. There, knowing that Hanh was going to shoot birds, GH (born 2010), residing in Hamlet 3, Minh Thanh Commune (Yen Thanh District) asked to go along.

At about 2:35 p.m. the same day, Cao Dang Hanh and GH went to Hamlet 5, Minh Thanh Commune. After a while, Hanh received a phone call from her son telling her that he had been beaten on the head by a man in the hamlet named TA. After reassuring her son with the promise "I'll beat you up someday", Cao Dang Hanh continued to go bird hunting.

When approaching Provincial Road 538D, Hanh saw TA (born in 1997), who lived in the same hamlet, herding cows on the side of the road. Hanh stopped the car and asked why TA beat her son. TA replied that it was because Hanh's son teased him.

Angry because he thought TA beat his child for no reason, Cao Dang Hanh immediately took the air gun in his hand and pulled the trigger, shooting TA in the neck, causing the victim to fall to the ground.

Immediately after the incident, Hanh told GH to take the gun home and hide it for her while she took the victim to the hospital. However, due to the severity of the injury, the victim died shortly after.

On January 3, 2024, Cao Dang Hanh took the 90 cm gun and reported the incident to the police.

At the trial, Cao Dang Hanh admitted all his crimes and apologized to the victim's family.

It is known that after the incident, Cao Dang Hanh's family paid the hospital and funeral expenses for NTA's family in the amount of more than 58 million VND. In addition, the family of the defendant Cao Dang Hanh supported and compensated the victim's family for mental damage in the amount of 150 million VND.

The victim’s family did not request Cao Dang Hanh to pay any further civil compensation and filed a petition for a reduced sentence for the defendant. Considering the case as a whole, the panel sentenced defendant Cao Dang Hanh to 18 years in prison for murder.

Regarding the act of illegally storing and using 2 guns (hunting guns) of Cao Dang Hanh, the authorities have made a record to punish him.administrative violationsby authority.