The knife cuts off friendship, the source of pain

The cruel knife

Tran Tuan Huy (born in 1995) and Pham TT (born in 1994) are friends, living in the same ward in Vinh City (Nghe An). As close friends, each of them is indispensable to each other in their fun activities, from going out, drinking to singing karaoke. However, after a drinking session and a fateful singing session, their friendship ended when one passed away and the other was in trouble with the law.

According to the indictment, on the evening of August 3, 2024, after drinking beer and alcohol, Huy and Mr. T. went to sing. At 11:30 p.m. the same day, Mr. T.'s wife suddenly came to the karaoke bar and had a conflict with Huy. During the argument, Huy swung his arm and hit his friend's wife. The pregnant woman resentfully told her husband about being beaten by her friend. Afterwards, Mr. T. immediately called Huy to question him and asked to meet to talk things out.

At around midnight on August 4, T. rode his motorbike to Huy's front gate. Thinking that his friend had come to his house to fight, and that he was drunk, Huy took a knife out to meet him. At this time, T. opened the trunk of his motorbike and cursed, asking: "Why did you hit my wife?" As soon as his friend finished questioning him, Huy pulled out a sharp knife from his back pocket and stabbed T. in the chest.

After being stabbed, Mr. T. ran away in panic but was still chased by Huy. At this time, Mr. T. turned around with a knife and stabbed Huy in the side and back, then fell to the ground. After being stabbed again in the back by Huy, Mr. T. ran away for a while and fell down a second time.

In pain, T. tried to tell Huy, “You hit me.” Thinking that his friend was pretending, Huy said no and kicked T. Only when he saw his friend bleeding profusely did Huy stop and call an ambulance, taking his friend to Nghe An General Hospital. However, it was too late…

Knowing that his friend would not survive, Tran Tuan Huy surrendered to the police and confessed to all his crimes. Huy was then taken for examination by the authorities. The conclusion of the North Central Forensic Psychiatric Institute showed that before, during and after committing the crime and at the time of the examination, Tran Tuan Huy suffered from mental and behavioral disorders due to the use of hallucinogenic substances (with personality and behavioral changes and some moderate mental disorders).

At the recent trial of Tran Tuan Huy for murder, the defendant testified that he was drunk that day and could not control his actions. Huy stated that he did not intend to kill his friend but did not expect that the incident would go too far.

That day, after stabbing and discovering that Mr. T. was bleeding profusely, Huy went home to get his motorbike to take his friend to the hospital. The defendant stated that he had carried his friend by motorbike for a few dozen meters. However, when his friend, who was sitting behind him, fell down on the road, the defendant immediately called an ambulance.

During the process of answering the questions of the jury, the defendant stated that he suffered from depression and had to take medication regularly, so he could not remember the details of the incident. The defendant admitted his mistakes and apologized to the victim's family. The male defendant stated that during his detention, he always felt tormented by the actions he had committed against his friend, because over the years, they had been close friends.

The pain of two women

Sitting quietly in court, the victim's wife recounted what happened when she went to the karaoke bar to meet the defendant. This woman said that the defendant had repeatedly invited her husband to "unhealthy" places. Therefore, when she heard that her husband and Huy went to sing karaoke, she was so angry that she went to see Huy to ask him what had happened. After returning home, she told her husband that Huy had beaten her, and not long after that, she received a call with bad news about her husband.

She choked up as she recounted that that night when she heard the news that her husband had been stabbed, she rushed to the hospital despite being pregnant with her third child. When her husband did not survive, the young woman struggled to complete the funeral. The pain of losing her husband caused her to collapse mentally and affect her health.

However, she had to try for the sake of her unborn child and her two young children. About a month after giving birth, she returned to work at a small hair salon to earn money to take care of her children. To attend today's trial, the young widow had to leave her 3-month-old baby with relatives. Faced with the pain and great loss, the victim's family representative requested the defendant to pay 1.5 billion VND in compensation.

The trial lasted longer when the panel of judges allowed the two sides to reach an agreement on civil compensation. However, when hearing the victim’s family’s request, the defendant’s mother timidly explained their difficult family situation. The 57-year-old woman explained that she was in poor health and that her husband had cancer. After her son committed the crime, she had to take care of the children because Huy and his wife had divorced.

The defendant’s mother explained that she knew human life was priceless, but after the heartbreaking incident, she tried to borrow money to compensate the victim’s family 215 million VND. Now, the family is trying to find ways to compensate the victim’s family. After that, she asked the victim’s family to lower the compensation. But the two sides failed to reach an agreement, so they both presented to the jury to handle the case according to the law.

Meeting the victim’s family in court, the mother apologized on behalf of her son to the victim’s family. She then confided about the difficult life her son had when he suffered from depression for a long time. According to her, Huy suffered from depression, which caused his health and personality to be abnormal, and she asked the court to consider reducing his sentence.

During the deliberation, relatives brought their two children closer to Huy to talk. Seeing the two young children, the male defendant burst into tears. Huy choked up as he told his youngest daughter to send him a letter when she could write. The defendant also did not forget to tell his children to obey their grandparents and relatives, to study hard and be good people. The reunion of the three father and children was interrupted when the panel of judges announced the verdict.

The panel of judges determined that the defendant’s actions violated the law and were dangerous to society, so they needed to be dealt with severely to serve as a deterrent and preventative measure. However, mitigating circumstances for the defendant should also be considered, such as surrender, remorse, limited cognitive ability and ability to control behavior; and the defendant had influenced the family to compensate for funeral expenses and some of the mental damage to the victim’s family.

After a comprehensive review of the case, the court sentenced defendant Tran Tuan Huy to 17 years in prison for “Murder”. Regarding the civil part, the court ordered the defendant to compensate the victim’s family more than 268 million VND and provide monthly support for the victim’s 3 children 1.2 million VND/child until they are 18 years old.

The case ended with a verdict for the defendant, but the pain never ended for those left behind. On one side was a young wife who was single-handedly raising three children after losing her husband; on the other side was an old, frail mother, tormented by the pain her son had caused for his best friend. If only Tran Tuan Huy and Pham TT could have been calmer and taken a step back from their anger, perhaps the two families would not have had to suffer such irreparable losses.