Man sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his wife's nephew.

(Baonghean.vn) - On May 28, the Supreme People's Court opened a criminal appeals trial to hear the case against defendant Le Van Huong (50 years old, residing in Quynh Loc commune, Hoang Mai town, Nghe An province) for the crime of "murder".

The victim in this case is Nguyen Van Nam (born in 1994), the son of Nguyen Dai Duong (50 years old, residing in the same neighborhood). Mr. Duong and the defendant Huong are brothers-in-law (Mr. Duong married the older sister, and the defendant Huong married the younger sister).

According to the indictment, at around 8 PM on August 28, 2013, after returning home from drinking, Huong suddenly remembered that earlier that morning she had gone to the house of Mr. Nguyen Dai Duong (50 years old, residing in the same neighborhood) – her brother-in-law – to ask for a truckload of soil for her house foundation, but had been refused. Still feeling drunk and annoyed, Huong went to her brother-in-law's house to talk.

Defendant Huong in court

Huong took the knife and stood close to the wall of her house, cursing and provoking Mr. Duong, while also threatening to kill him. Hearing Huong's cursing, Mr. Duong opened the window and told Huong to "go home, we'll talk tomorrow." Huong hid the knife near the fence and went home.

However, after returning home, Huong felt resentful again and took the knife to Mr. Duong's house once more. This time, she saw Mr. Duong and his son, Nguyen Van Nam (born in 1994), standing by the chicken coop. Huong rushed in with the knife and slashed repeatedly at Mr. Duong's hands and back, causing him to fall down.

Seeing his father being attacked, Nam ran to intervene, but Huong turned around and repeatedly stabbed him in the chest with the knife, causing him to collapse on the spot. Although he was rushed to the hospital, Nam died from a stab wound that severed his lung. Huong, meanwhile, went home and slept as if nothing had happened.

At the first-instance trial on January 21st, the Nghe An Provincial People's Court sentenced Huong to life imprisonment. In addition, the defendant was ordered to pay 99 million VND in compensation for emotional distress and funeral expenses to the victim's family.

At the appeal hearing, arguing that the sentence was unsatisfactory, Mr. Nguyen Dai Duong requested the panel of judges to sentence Le Van Huong to death because Huong's actions were thuggish, showing disregard for the law and the lives of others.

Considering that after the incident, the defendant's family compensated the victim with 99 million VND to mitigate the consequences, and the victim also acknowledged her wrongdoing, the Supreme People's Court decided to reject the appeal and uphold the life sentence for Huong.

Duc Chung