A man accused of beating to death a former Vietnamese army officer during a burglary was ordered yesterday held for trial, say the Philadelphia Inquirer here and the Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times here.
Jermaine Burgess (pictured) was already facing trial in another murder. He had been linked by DNA tests to the other killing as well as the murder of Hoa Pham.
Pham was a former lieutenant in the Vietnamese army, a vice chairman of the Vietnamese Catholic Community and one of the activists who helped bring Vietnamese-language mass to the local church.
In court, a police investigator testified that Burgess had told police he was walking down the street of Upper Darby Township west of Philadelphia when he saw the darkened home of Hoa Pham and his wife. Thinking it was empty, he broke a window and entered.
Prosecutors allege that Burgess found the couple in bed, beat them with a hammer, and demanded money during a terrifying attack that lasted more than an hour. Pham’s wife managed to flee for help, according to the Inquirer.
At a preliminary hearing yesterday, neighbor Van Hien Lu recalled how he had opened his door to find Pham’s wife in a blue nightgown, her face bleeding and her hands tied with an electrical cord. The Daily Times reports on the neighbor’s testimony:
Hien Lu, … related to the Phams through marriage, testified Pham’s spouse banged on their door and was screaming about 9:30 p.m. Nov. 10.
“Her face was bleeding,” Lu said. “She was wearing a nightgown and looked terrified. An electricity cord was tied on her hands. My wife untied (the cord) for her. We threw it away. She said a black guy beat her and her husband with a hammer for more than an hour.
“We called 911. We tried to comfort her. The police came, an ambulance came. I went to the hospital with her. She said the black guy raped her,” describing him only as “muscular and tall.”
Burgess, 37, has been in and out of prison repeatedly throughout his adult life starting with a two-to-five sentence for aggravated assault and weapons possession when he was 20.
Even before that, he was first charged with burglary at age 11 and with assault at 17.
The killing of Hoa Pham took place five months after the last time Burgess left prison. A month later, he was arrested again, charged with a violent carjacking in Philadelphia. According to the Inquirer, “Police then matched his DNA and charged him in the Pham murder and the October 27 murder of Marie Ott of Ridley Township.”
About ten members of Pham’s family were present in court at the preliminary hearing. Hoa Pham’s wife, however, was not, as the identification of Burgess by his victim is a potential issue at trial: At a police lineup, the victim was unsure that Burgess was the perpetrator, reports the Inquirer here.
Like most English-language media, the Bolsavik is withholding the rape victim’s name.
Let Burgess be executed!
And this story highlights the only beauty of Communism, this dude would ve shot when he did his crime at 20…And if they say you ve got a death sentence?..It means you got three days to live, save the world a lot of good oxygen….
ha … ha … ha …. good sense of humor Sonny, but soooooooooooo true !
Would this mean that he would wear the shirt with the stars and stripes rather than the yellow star to save his guilty ass?
Hope your Valentine
congressman Cao, assemblyman Van, Supervisor Janet might sign a letter to ask for justice .
Hate to disappoint you Sonny boy, but your one and only “beauty” doesn’t exist. He would not be shot for aggravated assault and weapons charges, he would hardly do any time at all. In fact, if he had $20 to his name he would do no time. After he raped and murdered he MAY get the death sentence, but if he gave $100 to the commy, they would then replace him with a relative of the victim and call it a day. If the victim’s family protest by hiring a lawyer, the judge, after accepting $35 and a bowl of noodles as a bribe, would have the lawyer beat up and jailed. Not quite the beauty that you had in mind, right?
Thank you for your reply Hoang N.
Your response s exactly what i expect…
What if i call that Communist “beauty” a diptych idea? What would be your reply?
See the twisted words behind all these craps?..I now can say you re either don t appreciate or don t know jack about humor, or not intelligent enough to understand my “diptych” whatever i m talking about, what do you say?
By the way, if that dude s so broke?..How he s gonna poop $20 to pay those crooked cops?..
there are two types of government in VN, the communism for the rich and the other one for the poor, take & pick.
Welcome to the Socialist United of America
Where : all profits are PRIVATE and losses are SOCIALIZED :
* You taxpayer have paid for $750 billion dollars for bank bailout, of which billions were used for bonuses(Merrill Lynch), for extravagant spendings (AIG), and for risky buyout/merger(Bank of America).
* Two more trillions of taxpayer’s money are being proposed to buy banks’ toxic assets.
* You might loses your house, your job, your insurance. The super-rich get automatic welfare checks from YOU.
* It is a RED socialist way : you pay for the super-rich’s losses.
* California residence will pay higher gasoline taxes. That is a extreme burden on the working class, since they drive more to work and drive older cars.
Welcome to People’s Republic of Kalifornia : Here is your new taxes
* Income. A 5% surcharge on what the tax filer owes.
* Vehicle license fee, the so-called car tax. Increase the annual fee on the value of vehicles from 0.65% to 1.15%, good for $1.2 billion annually.
* Sales. Increase the sales tax by one cent on the dollar, raising $4.5 billion annually.
* Gasoline. Increase the per-gallon excise tax by 12 cents, generating $1.8 billion a year.
* Dependent income tax credit. Dramatically reduce it from $309 to $103, gaining the state $1.4 billion a year.
All taxes applies to only working class, not the rich.
Who is benefiting all of these increases ?
Your communist unions of state and municipal employees
** Robert Robert retired at the end of 2007 as chairman of Citigroup with a $125 million package. That is is private Profit.
** in 2008 Citigroup received $35 Billions from taxpayers to cover bank’s investment losses.
You will loss your house, your job to pay for their losses. This is PURE communism.
Country Firtst, you might want to address your concern with President Obama.
Why should I ?
I am a state employee getting plenty of your money, still my one hour coffee break.
It is you little people, who do not complain, will bear the brunt of the cuts.
That’s nice to know how our tax monies has been spend to employ people like you. Enjoy your coffee while you stil can cause a lot of our people will be out of jobs & they’re not going to pay taxes to state so sooner or later you big guy will also bear the brunt of the cuts whether you like it or not !