Jersey Viet man pleads guilty to stabbing cousin in robbery

A Vietnamese-American man from Woodbridge, New Jersey, on Monday pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in connection with the stabbing death of a relative, also Viet, in July 2004, reports the Asbury Park Press here.

Kha Duc Nguyen, 31, accepted the plea agreement from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s office and had his charge reduced from first-degree murder down to first-degree aggravated manslaughter.

According to the paper, Nguyen was accused of stabbing Tuan Nguyen, his 24-year-old cousin by marriage, on July 27, 2004.

Tuan Nguyen’s body was discovered slumped against the door of his family’s apartment by his father, Joseph Nguyen. According to autopsy results, Tuan Nguyen died of multiple stab wounds to the back, neck and chest.

A press release previously posted by the prosecutor’s office here claims that Kha then flew out of Jersey on July 30, 2004 on an emergency visa, and stayed in Vietnam for 4 months.

Kha was tracked down when he flew back from Vietnam to Newark, and was arrested at the airport.

He faces a 10-year prison sentence. Had he been convicted of first-degree murder, Nguyen would have faced 30 years to life.

Kha was helped by a judge’s ruling that statements he made to the police was inadmissible because the police had continued to question him after he invoked his Fifth Amendment “Miranda” rights. The judge’s ruling was upheld on appeal.

During the questioning, Kha admitted that he entered the victim’s apartment with his brother, Khuynh, and stabbed Tuan Nguyen to death during the course of a robbery, according to court documents quoted by the Asbury Park Press.

Nguyen has been incarcerated in lieu of $750,000 bail since his arrest in November 2004.