9th grade student who slashed someone in dormitory gets sentence

On October 4, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a trial for defendant Vu Ba Gia (born 2007), residing in Tay Son commune, Ky Son district, for the crime of "Murder". The victim in the case was male student Lau Ba T. (born 2004, residing in Na Ngoi commune, Ky Son district).

Defendant Vu Ba Gia was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Photo: Tran Vu

Vu Ba Gia is a student at Tay Son Ethnic Boarding Secondary School, and Lau Ba T. is a student at Ky Son District Continuing Education Center.

On the evening of March 21, 2022, while Gia was drinking, he saw his friend Mua Chu Di running over and inviting him to beat T. Because before that, Di and T. hadconflict. Gia had no conflict with T. but agreed to participate.

Before leaving with four others, Gia took a machete. When they arrived at the school's dormitory, Di pointed at T. and said, "This is the guy, let's beat him up."

Gia went in and slapped T in the face. The group of friends who were with him also jumped in to beat T. After being beaten, the victim ran away but was chased and stopped by Gia, so T. pushed Gia away.

After that, T. continued to run away and was slashed many times in the head by Gia. The victim was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment and died on March 25, 2022. The cause of T.'s death was respiratory failure, acute circulatory failure due to a fractured skull, cerebral edema, and cerebral hemorrhage.

Because Vu Ba Gia was just over 14 years old at the time of the crime, the court had the participation of a family representative as guardian.

At the witness stand, the defendant stated that there was no conflict between him and the victim, but because he listened to his friend's invitation and had alcohol in his system, he could not control his actions.

The representative of the school where the defendant studied accepted partial responsibility for not closely supervising the students in the boarding area. After the incident, the school organized boarding more strictly and at the same time disseminated the law to the students.

With many mitigating circumstances such as: honest confession, repentance, influencing the family to compensate the victim for losses, the defendant filed a request for a reduced sentence... The panel sentenced defendant Vu Ba Gia to 6 years in prison for murder.