Death row inmate fabricated a murder case to postpone execution

A death row inmate in Dak Lak fabricated the story of being a witness in a murder case to have his execution by lethal injection postponed.

Vi Be Ngoat at the time of his arrest for killing two children. Photo: Quoc Thinh.

On the afternoon of October 3, Colonel Nguyen Van Bon - Head of the Criminal Police Department (Dak Lak Police), said that the unit had completed the investigation into the case of death row inmate Vi Be Ngoat (42 years old), who claimed to be a witness to a murder case that occurred in 2009.

According to Colonel Bon, the investigation determined that, from a drowning accident, Ngoat fabricated a murder case committed by his own relatives.

"Death row inmate Ngoat admitted that he fabricated the murder to delay the execution of his death sentence," said Colonel Bon, adding that the investigation agency had sent the conclusion to the Dak Lak Execution Council to continue executing the death row inmate.

According to the records, in the early morning of October 21, 2013, Ngoat helped his wife push a cart carrying coffee to sell and then returned home in Ea Hiao commune. When passing by a neighbor's house, he saw a goose in the yard so he decided to catch it for food.

At this time, Ngoat was discovered by a 10-year-old girl and threatened to report it to her family. Fearing being reported, he went into the kitchen and took a hammer and hit the girl on the head, causing her to die on the spot. The girl's brother (14 years old, mentally disabled) who was standing in the house was also beaten to death by this man.

When the case was discovered, the perpetrator was present at the scene to listen to the situation, then took a car to escape but was arrested four days later. In mid-2014, Ngoat was sentenced to death by the Dak Lak People's Court for murder.

Ngoat appealed for a reduced sentence, but the appeals court later upheld the death sentence.

On August 9, when he was given his last words before being injected with a lethal drug, death row inmate Ngoat confessed that he was a witness in a murder case 8 years ago in Krong Pak district. The execution council decided to postpone Ngoat’s lethal injection and assigned the police to investigate his statement.

According to VNE