Sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder, the rebellious son hopes to see his old mother one last time.

The fateful stab because the rice cooker was plugged in late

Le Dang Tuan(Born in 1971), residing in Nghia Dan town, Nghia Dan district (Nghe An), is a vagabond, lazy, and has a not-so-good past, so even though he is over 50 years old, Tuan still does not have a stable job to support himself.

It is known that from 1988 to 2010, Le Dang Tuan was in trouble with the law many times. When he was only 17 years old, he was sent to a re-education camp for 4 years for theft of property. After his re-education period, Tuan joined the army. It was thought that the military environment would train and help Tuan become a good person, but Tuan escaped, not forgetting to "pocket" some other properties before leaving. In 1996, Tuan was sentenced to 48 months in prison for desertion and theft of property.

After serving his prison term, Tuan left his hometown to live in the Central Highlands. During this time, Tuan was imprisoned again for receiving property obtained through criminal acts. In 2003, Le Dang Tuan received another sentence when he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbery. Before he could rebuild his life, in 2010, Tuan "returned to his old ways" and entered the prison gate again for theft with a sentence of 33 months in prison.

Returning home with 6 sentences, Le Dang Tuan wandered around, doing whatever was called to make a living. Around the beginning of 2021, Tuan met Mr. Tran Van Son (residing in Thai Hoa town, Nghe An). Mr. Son called Tuan down many times to help him with housework and let Tuan stay at his house to make it convenient for him to work.

On August 1, 2021, while Tuan was taking a nap, he heard a noise outside and woke up. When he went out, he saw Mr. Truong Xuan C. (born in 1989), residing in Nghia Yen commune, Nghia Dan district, and a friend come to Mr. Son's house to play.

Afterwards, a conflict arose between Tuan and Mr. Son because Tuan blamed him for cooking rice late. Tuan cursed and then intended to go to the bedroom to rest. However, seeing Tuan being rude to his senior, Mr. C. rushed over and punched Tuan many times with the intention of "teaching him a lesson".

At this time, Tuan went into his bedroom to get a 52cm long knife hidden under the bed. Mr. C. kicked the door open to enter the room, but when he saw Tuan holding a knife, he stepped back and closed the door. Tuan used his shoulder to "bang" the door open and then took the knife and stabbed Mr. C. in the hip. After that, Tuan slashed Mr. C.'s shoulder and neck many times until the victim collapsed. Seeing Tuan attack Mr. C., Mr. Son and everyone else ran out of the house. After committing the crime, Tuan took the weapon and fled. Because it was raining and his clothes were wet, Tuan went into a resident's house to take a shower and change into new clothes. At 5:30 p.m. the same day, Tuan was arrested by the police with the weapon while hiding in the area.

As for Mr. C., the investigation agency determined that he died at the scene due to shock due to blood loss and acute respiratory failure due to a wound that severed an artery and punctured his left lung.

Last wish

On December 28, 2021, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Le Dang Tuan for the crime of "Murder". As soon as he was brought out, Tuan looked around the courtroom and quickly bowed his head when he did not see his relatives, because Tuan had been in court 5 times.

At the trial, the defendant testified that they had an argument with Mr. Son about the late arrival of rice. Afterwards, angry at being punched by the guest, the defendant took a knife and slashed the victim, leading to the murder. However, Tuan did not forget to explain to the court: "The defendant has been to prison many times, but before that, he had never used a stick to hit anyone."

When asked by the jury, "Why did you slash the victim's private parts so many times when he did not resist?", Tuan stated that he was "drunk with blood" at that time and could not control his actions.

“The defendant did not want to “show off”, but only because he accidentally did it…”, Tuan told the jury and affirmed that he did not use any stimulants at the time of the crime. Regarding the knife used in the crime, Tuan said that “because he often had nightmares, he left the knife under his bed”. Then Tuan admitted his mistake: “The victim’s death was entirely the defendant’s fault. The defendant knows that his actions were unacceptable”.

The representative of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province proposed a sentence of 15-16 years in prison, Tuan asked the Trial Council to reduce his sentence so that he could return home soon to make up for his family. Tuan also shared: "My mother is very weak, she probably only has a few more years to live. I don't have the chance to return home to see her one last time, I just hope that my siblings will take her to prison once. She probably won't recognize me anymore, but at least I will be able to see her before she dies. With this sentence, I'm afraid my mother won't be able to wait for me to return...".

In the presence of the victim’s representative, Tuan apologized. The defendant also asked the court to consider reducing his sentence so that he could return home soon to “compensate for some of the victim’s family’s mental damage” and take care of his elderly mother.

According to Tuan, his parents are both retired officials. After the murder occurred, the defendant influenced his family to compensate the victim's family 10 million VND. It is known that Tuan is the eldest of four siblings. Since the day the rebellious son went to prison, his family has considered him "working far away". At the time Le Dang Tuan was sentenced for murder, his elderly mother was over 80 years old, her memory had declined significantly, and she could only remember a few of her children and grandchildren in the family.

The jury found that in this case the defendant committed a particularly dangerous and hooligan crime, so they sentenced Tuan to 20 years in prison for murder. In the civil case, the court ordered the defendant to compensate the victim’s family 182 million VND, and to provide the victim’s mother with one month’s basic salary each month.