Life sentence upheld for man who shot dead 2 people in Vinh City

On September 30, in Nghe An, the Hanoi High People's Court opened a criminal appeal trial of Cao Trong Phu (born in 1962), residing in Nghi Kim commune, Vinh city, on two charges of "Murder" and "Illegal possession and use of military weapons".

According to the first instance verdict, Cao Trong Phu met Dang Ngoc A. (born in 1956), from Vinh City, living in Ho Chi Minh City since 2019 through an introduction from friends. Around May 2020, Mr. A. returned to his hometown and asked Phu to buy a plot of land for him and put it under his name.

In August 2020, Mr. A. borrowed 500 million VND from Phu. At that time, the red book of Mr. A.'s land plot had not been completed, so Phu had to mortgage a plot of his land to get money to lend to Mr. A.

After that, Mr. A. sold an SH made in Italy for 100 million VND. When transferring money to Mr. A., Phu found out that the car was made in Vietnam, so he did not accept the car and did not get his money back.

Defendant Cao Trong Phu. Photo: Tran Vu

After completing the red book for Mr. A's land plot in his name, Phu mortgaged it to pay off the debt. Since October 2020, Mr. A has met Phu many times to demand the land title back. Phu said that the red book had been mortgaged to the bank and asked Mr. A to pay the amount he had borrowed previously (a total of 600 million VND) to get the red book back. However, Mr. A did not agree, leading to a conflict between the two sides.

Mr. A. continuously called and texted threatening that if he did not return the land title, he would hire someone to kill Phu.

On the morning of April 30, 2021, Mr. A., Ngo Quang H. (born in 1979, residing in Vinh City) and another person went to Phu's house to "talk".

While standing in front of the gate, Mr. A. cursed, threatened, and grabbed Phu by the collar. Phu pulled out a K59 gun from his person, aimed it at Mr. A.'s chest, and pulled the trigger. Hearing the gunshot, Ngo Quang H., who was sitting in the car, immediately ran to Phu's gate and was hit by two bullets, dying on the spot.

After shooting down two people, Phu closed the door and barricaded himself in the house. That same afternoon, the police successfully persuaded Cao Trong Phu to surrender.

During the investigation, the authorities sent Cao Trong Phu for a psychiatric evaluation. The results showed that before, during, and after committing the crime and at the time of the evaluation, Phu suffered from paranoid disorder, limited cognitive ability and ability to control behavior.

At the first instance trial, defendant Phu stated that due to long-standing resentment due to being threatened by Dang Ngoc A., he could not control himself and shot this man to death.

The court of first instance sentenced Cao Trong Phu to life in prison for "Murder" and 3 years in prison for "Illegal possession and use of military weapons", with a combined sentence of life in prison.

Phu then appealed for a reduced sentence. At the appeal court, the defendant maintained his appeal, explaining his difficult circumstances. At the same time, he provided a request for a reduced sentence from the two families of the victims.

The Court of Appeal found that the circumstances the defendant had presented to request a reduction in sentence had been considered by the court of first instance. At this hearing, the defendant did not provide any new circumstances. Therefore, the Court of Appeal rejected the defendant’s appeal and upheld the life sentence for the two charges against defendant Cao Trong Phu.