He pressed his wife into a water barrel until she died and then took her body back to her hometown to dispose of it.
Seeing his wife faint from blood loss, the husband coldly hugged the victim, drowned her in a barrel of water and then left as if nothing had happened.
On May 30, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City opened a trial and sentenced defendant Nguyen Van Nghia (born in 1972, from Tien Giang) to life in prison for murder.
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| Defendant Nghia received a life sentence. |
According to the indictment, in April 2014, Nghia and his wife, Giang, and their two children moved from Tien Giang to Phuoc Kieng Commune, Nha Be District, Ho Chi Minh City to live. They both worked at a pig slaughterhouse near their home.
Nghia suspected Giang of having an affair so the couple often argued. Nghia often beat his wife.
At around 4:30 a.m. on July 1, 2016, Nghia’s son entered his father’s bedroom and discovered many blood stains and bloody objects. When he entered the bathroom, the son found his mother dead in a water barrel.
Upon receiving the news, Nghia told his younger brother that his sister-in-law had committed suicide. The two went home to clean up the blood stains, took Giang's body out, and informed his wife's family. Nghia then rented a car and took his wife's body back to their hometown. When his family discovered many injuries on Giang's body, they became suspicious and reported it to the police.
At the police station, Nghia confessed that early in the morning of the incident, Ms. Giang prepared things to wake Nghia up to go to work. Because he was drunk, Nghia refused to get up, causing the two to argue. Ms. Giang cut her wrist to commit suicide, but Nghia intervened. During the struggle, the knife blade stabbed Ms. Giang's stomach and hand, causing her to panic and run into the bathroom, fainting. Nghia hugged his wife and put her in a barrel of water. According to the autopsy results, the victim died from drowning and excessive blood loss.
At the trial, defendant Nghia cried and sobbed, insisting that his wife committed suicide: "I did not kill my wife. If the court finds me guilty, it will be an injustice for me for the rest of my life. After so many years of marriage, I could never have the heart to murder my wife."
However, Nghia could not explain many of the questions of the jury.
At this trial, the defendant’s son, who is also the victim’s son, said that his father had a mistress and often beat his mother. On the day of the incident, he also heard Nghia say: “You don’t have to go to work today.”
This is also consistent with the testimony of some people who worked at the same slaughterhouse as Nghia and his wife. Accordingly, that day, at around 3am, Nghia was present at the slaughterhouse, but was mentally unstable and could not concentrate on his work. Thinking that Nghia was tired, many people advised Nghia to go home and rest, but Nghia did not return until he heard the news of his wife's death.
When asked by the panel of judges whether to request a reduced sentence for the defendant, the son thought for a moment, then shook his head and firmly replied... no!
Similarly, the defendant's father-in-law agreed with the request of the Procuracy and hoped that the People's Court would severely punish his son-in-law.
After deliberation, the panel of judges determined that although defendant Nghia denied committing the crime as charged in the indictment, the panel of judges found that the evidence and proceedings at court were sufficient to establish that defendant Nghia was the perpetrator and had committed many acts to conceal the crime, thereby sentencing defendant Nghia to life imprisonment.