Murder over the pond bank and the story of village love and neighborliness

Murder…from the pond bank

“Because of anger, thinking about the previous beating, the defendant could not control his actions,” throughout the trial that lasted about 3 hours, defendant Ngo Duc Thien (born 1960), residing in Hung My commune, Hung Nguyen district, repeated that statement many times. The story started from the fish pond between the two families, plus a little anger and thenmurderheartbreak happens.

The heartbreaking case happened nearly half a year ago, but many people in Hung My commune are still haunted by it. Ngo Duc Thien's family and his neighbor Nguyen Ngoc Nh. each have a fish pond, sharing the same pond bank. On August 6, 2020, seeing his neighbor hire an excavator to renovate the fish pond, Thien came out to see and said: "If you want to fill the land, fill it on your side, and let me fill it on my side." Hearing that, Mr. Nh. called Thien "selfish and bad". Thien then also used harsh words to insult his neighbor.

Being scolded by Thien, Mr. Nh. took a bamboo stick to hit his neighbor's leg, leading to a fight between the two sides. Luckily, the incident was promptly stopped by everyone, and Thien went home. At this time, seeing his leg swollen from being beaten, Thien went to Mr. Nh.'s house and asked to be taken to the medical station for examination. Mr. Nh.'s wife then took Thien to the medical station for examination and medicine. When returning home, Mr. Nh. poured a glass of wine for Thien as a way to make peace, but the neighbor did not drink and left.

Thinking that everything would stop, at noon of the same day, when Thien carried a hoe to the field to check on the rice, he saw Mr. Nh. riding a motorbike. Remembering the beating he had received earlier, Thien had the idea of ​​revenge. When he saw Mr. Nh. riding a motorbike near him, Thien used a hoe to hit his neighbor on the head. Being hit unexpectedly, Mr. Nh. fell to the ground with the motorbike. The victim died from a fractured and collapsed skull, cerebral hemorrhage, and brain contusion due to trauma.

Ngo Duc Thien turned to apologize to the victim's family. His wife was sad and covered her face throughout the trial. Photo: Tran Vu

During the process of answering the questions of the jury, Thien stated that he did not intentionally kill the victim, but was only angry because he remembered being beaten before. A jury member asked: "After using a stick to hit the defendant, the victim asked someone to take him to get medicine and poured him a glass of wine to drink as a reconciliation, why did the defendant not accept but instead used a hoe to hit the victim on the head like that?" At this time, Thien mumbled, "The defendant did not do it on purpose."

But, intentionally or not, the truth is that Thien used a hoe to hit Mr. Nh., causing the victim to die. Now, whether he wants it or not, the defendant still has to stand before the victim’s family and the jury, and take responsibility for his crime.

If both sides can be a little more patient with each other

Exercising the right to prosecute in court, the representative of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province presented, because of the pond bank, the defendant used a hoe to beat the victim to death, do you think the motive and the consequences are proportional to each other?. To the above question, Thien answered that the contradiction was not big, the defendant also did not know why he did so. The defendant only accidentally did it once. But, Thien's "accident just once" was enough to cause the death of his neighbor.

A judge said that the defendant was old and should have thought things through. The old saying goes, “Forbearance is the key to good fortune.” Moreover, since the two sides were neighbors, they should be even more cordial with each other. There were many ways to resolve conflicts, but the defendant did not consider the options and instead used violence, causing one person to die, another to be imprisoned, and destroying the harmony of the neighborhood. What did the defendant think of this incident? “The defendant was wrong,” Thien mumbled.

It is known that Thien's family and Mr. Nh.'s family have been neighbors for about 30 years. The relationship between the two families is quite good, but in recent years, the two families' disagreements over the pond have caused conflicts between the two sides. Thinking back, if both sides had been a little more tolerant of each other, the beautiful relationship between the two neighbors would have remained intact. Now, there would be no deaths or imprisonment due to uncontrolled anger.

The victim’s representative attending the court requested the panel of judges to punish the defendant according to the law. “My family lost a younger brother, my wife and children lost a husband and father, a pain that cannot be compensated. Therefore, we request the court to strictly punish the defendant according to the law,” the victim’s representative stated.

Regarding the civil part, the victim’s representative requested that the defendant pay 420 million VND in compensation. Faced with the above compensation request, the defendant presented his difficult circumstances and asked for 300 million VND in compensation, but was refused. In his final words, the defendant apologized to the victim’s family and asked for a lighter sentence so he could return to his wife and children.

Seeing Thien bow his head sincerely before the jury, turn to apologize to the victim’s family representative, and ask for forgiveness, everyone felt heartbroken. However, the murder could not be changed. For his hooligan murder, the jury sentenced Ngo Duc Thien to 19 years in prison and ordered him to compensate the victim’s family more than 203 million VND.

Tran Vu