Death sentence upheld for murder and robbery on tea hill

(Baonghean.vn) - Defendant Tran Huu Dung was sentenced by the court to the highest penalty of death for three crimes of "murder", "robbery", and "fraudulent appropriation of property".

On October 19, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of defendant Tran Huu Dung (born 1981), in Dinh Son commune, Anh Son district, prosecuted on three charges of "murder", "robbery", and "fraudulent appropriation of property".

Tran Huu Dung and Nguyen Van Son (born in 1971), living in Dai Son commune, Do Luong district, have known each other for a short time. Son is a buffalo trader and often goes to Anh Son and Con Cuong districts to buy buffaloes. One time, Son went to the house of Le Minh Nghia, living in Chi Khe commune, Con Cuong district, who is Dung's co-chairman, to ask to buy buffaloes.

Defendant Tran Huu Dung in the dock. Photo: Phuong Thao

At that time, Dung was helping Nghia shovel sand here so he knew Son. After that, Dung went to find buffaloes and cows to introduce to Son to get a commission. Because Dung owed someone else a sum of money from business but his business was losing money and he could not pay, Dung thought that Son had a lot of money so he came up with the idea of ​​killing someone and seizing property to get money to pay off the debt.

At around 4am on May 24, 2017, Dung went to buy cattle with Mr. Son. When he left, Dung brought a knife with a wooden sheath. At around 7am, Mr. Son drove a motorbike with Dung to buy cattle in Cam Son commune, Anh Son district.

While passing through the tea hill area in Tan Tien village, Cam Son commune, seeing that there were no people around, Dung took out a knife and stabbed Mr. Son once. After being stabbed, Mr. Son let go of the motorbike, the two struggled with each other and Mr. Son ran into the tea hill area. Dung chased after him and continued to stab Mr. Son many times. After that, Dung took Mr. Son's phone, searched Mr. Son's pocket and found 3,300,000 VND, then took Mr. Son's motorbike and headed towards Bai Phu farm to National Highway 7.

On the way, Dung remembered that this morning, Mr. Son had paid for a buffalo for a customer for 21,500,000 VND, so Dung thought he had to take the money. When he arrived at this customer's house, Dung said that Mr. Son had an accident, so he temporarily took back the money, minus 2,500,000 VND as a deposit. When Mr. Son was well, he would come to pay and take the buffalo later. This customer thought it was real and gave 19 million VND to Dung.

After that, Dung called his mother and said, "I just killed someone." Seeing his mother silent, Dung rushed home to find her. When he learned that his mother had just taken rat poison, Dung took her to the emergency room. After that, Dung returned to his rented room in Cam Son commune, Anh Son district and was arrested by the police.

At court, the panel of judges concluded that Tran Huu Dung committed three crimes: "murder", "robbery", and "fraudulent appropriation of property". The court sentenced the defendant to death for "murder", 6 years in prison for "robbery", and 2 years in prison for "fraudulent appropriation of property". In total, Tran Huu Dung was sentenced to death.

Regarding civil liability, defendant Dung must compensate the victim's family 163 million VND and provide for the upbringing of Mr. Son's two children, each 1,500,000 VND/month.

Phuong Thao