Father Asks for Death Penalty

[dan_uk]

Father Accused of Tossing 4 Children Off Bridge Pleads Guilty, Asks for Death Penalty

MOBILE, Ala. — A man accused of tossing his four young children to their deaths from a coastal Alabama bridge unexpectedly pleaded guilty Thursday and told a state judge he wants to be put to death.

Lam Luong, 38, a Vietnamese refugee, entered the plea before Circuit Judge Charles Graddick at a hearing on a change of venue motion. Luong made the plea in a letter he wrote and gave to the judge. Under Alabama law, capital murder defendants must be tried before a jury even if they plead guilty. Luong's trial starts Monday.

Luong, who speaks Vietnamese, communicated with Graddick through an interpreter. Court-appointed defense attorneys have opposed his desire to plead guilty, which he had expressed previously.

"It came as a complete surprise. We didn't have any idea that something like that would happen," Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. said, adding that prosecutors had been prepared to argue against changing the venue.

Defense attorneys did not return phone messages for comment.

Although the defendant has admitted guilt, the jury will make a recommendation of either death or life in prison without parole. The judge is not bound by the recommendation.

Prosecutors claim Luong argued with his common-law wife, Kieu Ngoc Phan, 23, before he drove the family van to the top of the two-lane bridge on Jan. 7, 2008 and tossed the children into the cold Mississippi Sound 80 feet below.

The bodies of the four children — Hannah Luong, 2, Ryan Phan, 3, Lindsey Luong, 1, and Danny Luong, 4 months — were recovered from waters off the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana during a search that involved hundreds of volunteers in aircraft, boats and on foot.

Luong came to the U.S. from Vietnam when he was 14. The family was living near the fishing village of Bayou La Batre at the time of the deaths.

Kam Phengsisomboun, who has served as spokesman for the family of the mother, said they had no comment. But he told The Associated Press in an interview last week that the death penalty "would be too easy" for Luong.

"Let him suffer in prison for what he did to the kids," he said.

Tyson has said he would recommend a death sentence if Luong is convicted.

U.S. immigration records indicate that Luong, the son of a Vietnamese woman and a U.S. serviceman, gained legal permanent residence status as a refugee, but never became a U.S. citizen.

Luong, a shrimp industry worker who had been arrested on cocaine possession charges in 1997 and 2000, moved his family to Hinesville, Ga., after Hurricane Katrina flooded the family's home in 2005. The family had returned to the bayou, moving into the home of the wife's mother, only a month before the bridge deaths.

Luong initially reported the children missing, saying he had given them to his girlfriend, living in a hotel In Gulfport, Miss., and that she failed to return them. Prosecutors said he later broke down and confessed when the story didn't add up, but Luong said he was harassed into making a false confession.

In a capital murder trial that follows a guilty plea, the prosecution presents its case for the jury, usually with little involvement by the defense. Capital murder convictions are automatically appealed for higher court review.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,505624,00.html

[goodguy]

:mad: every woman that ever gave birth. will want to rid this earth of this man. give him what he wants. the death penalty. why should keep him around?

[SaraSidle]

:mad: every woman that ever gave birth. will want to rid this earth of this man. give him what he wants. the death penalty. why should keep him around?

I am so shocked and appled I do not know what to say. here is where I agree with DP. He better be very schizophrenic .........IMO sara

[dan_uk]

Mother of Children Tossed Off Bridge Says Father 'Kept Laughing'


MOBILE, Ala. — The Vietnamese mother of four young children tossed to their deaths from an Alabama coastal bridge testified Monday that her common-law husband laughed when he told her that the children — then reported missing — would never be found.

"He kept laughing," Kieu Phan, 23, told jurors at Lam Luong's capital murder trial.

Phan burst into tears when color photographs of the children were flashed on a screen for jurors. Prosecutors said they will seek a death sentence if Luong is convicted.

The 38-year-old defendant sat motionless as the woman identified each of the victims by name: Their children together, Hannah Luong, 2, Lindsey Luong, 1, and Danny Luong, 4 months — and her son with another man, Ryan Phan, 3.

Luong is accused of throwing the children from the bridge on Jan. 7, 2008 after an argument with his wife.

Phan, whose testimony in Vietnamese was interpreted by a translator, said Luong at first told her he had left the children with a woman in Bayou La Batre. By 7 p.m. when they didn't return, she went to police and began a frantic house-to-house search.

Days later, when his story came under scrutiny and he was taken into custody, Luong had officers bring Phan to his jail cell to tell her: "They are all dead," according to her testimony.

"No way that we can find the children," she said he told her. "He kept laughing." She fell to her knees and cried, police testified.

Prosecutors claim Luong, a Vietnamese refugee and part-time shrimp boat worker, drove the family van to the top of Alabama's two-lane Dauphin Island bridge and tossed the children into the Mississippi Sound, some 80 feet below.

Officials said most of the children suffered head or neck injuries in addition to asphyxia due to drowning. They said only the youngest, Hannah, died from drowning alone.

Bayou La Batre Police Capt. Darryl Wilson testified he took Luong's statement in which he admitted to the killings. He quoted Luong as saying he had fought with his family and "wanted to see the look on her (his wife's) face when he told her" about the deaths.

Wilson said Luong initially led police on a search for the children in Biloxi, Miss., but eventually led Wilson and Bayou La Batre Police Chief John Joyner Jr. to the top of the bridge.

"He told me I would need some boats and divers," Wilson said.

That bridge conversation was tape-recorded by police and played for jurors who also were shown his 45-minute videotaped statement.

The four tiny bodies were recovered from waters off the Gulf coast during a search involving hundreds of volunteers in boats, aircraft and scouring the shoreline on foot.

Phan testified that the couple's relationship soured after they moved from Alabama after Hurricane Katrina demolished Bayou La Batre on Aug. 31, 2005, and they relocated to Hinesville, Ga.

Phan said Luong had a girlfriend and began using crack cocaine. She said the family moved back to south Mobile County after Luong was fired from a restaurant job. Luong also returned, but couldn't find work, according to testimony.

At a hearing on March 5, Luong pleaded guilty, but he reversed that decision Wednesday after learning a trial would be held despite the plea. A jury of 10 men and 6 women, including alternates, was seated to hear the case

Luong came to the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam at 14. Immigration records indicate that he gained legal permanent residence status as a refugee, but never became a U.S. citizen.

[Gingerwoman5]

so distraught by life as a refugee and suffering through Katerina that he did it to somehow "protect" them. But no he's just evil.
How repulsive.

[dan_uk]

Jury convicts Alabama dad of throwing 4 kids off bridge

(CNN) -- After deliberating for only 45 minutes, a jury convicted an Alabama man Thursday of throwing his four children off a Gulf Coast bridge in January 2008, according to prosecutors.

Lam Luong, 38, admitted throwing the children, who ranged in age from 3 years to 4 months, off the Dauphin Island bridge south of Mobile, according to CNN affiliate WKRG.

Charged with five counts of capital murder, he changed his plea to guilty last week. However, Alabama law requires that all capital cases go before a judge and jury, WKRG said.

The sentencing phase of Luong's trial will begin Friday, the Mobile County District Attorney's office told CNN.

Jurors will decide whether he should receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole. A judge is not bound by the jury's decision, however, and Alabama law requires an automatic appeal in capital

Luong and his wife were having marital difficulties, prosecutors said.

WKRG reported that during opening arguments in the trial, prosecutors told jurors Luong threw the kids off the bridge so he could see the look on his wife's face.

Luong was on crack at the time, and he told investigators they could charge him if they found the children's bodies before breaking into laughter, jurors were told.

The defense called no witnesses, but told jurors Luong was intoxicated at the time and was incapable of forming the necessary intent to be convicted of a capital offense, asking them to convict him of manslaughter, WKRG said.

During the trial, jurors heard about the search for the children's bodies and saw graphic video of the bodies floating in the water, the station reported.

A commercial fisherman recording rough weather off the coast of Venice, Louisiana, found one body, while two duck hunters and a Mississippi marine officer found the other three, according to WKRG.

Luong looked down, away from the overhead screens, when the photographs of the children's bodies were shown

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/20/alabama.jury.bridge/

[dan_uk]

Jury Recommends Death for Father Who Threw 4 Children Off Alabama Bridge


MOBILE, Ala. — A jury recommended a death sentence Friday for a man convicted of killing four children by tossing them from an 80-foot-high Alabama coastal bridge.

The jury deliberated about an hour Friday before recommending that 38-year-old Lam Luong be executed. The Vietnamese refugee was convicted Thursday of murdering the children. The jury also had the option of recommending life without parole for the deaths of the children, who were tossed off a Gulf coast bridge in January 2008.

The judge handling the trial is not bound by the jury's decision.

Authorities said three of the children were the man's with his common-law wife. One other was his wife's child with another man. The children ranged in ages from 4 months to 3 years.

Luong, who emigrated from Vietnam at 14, presented no defense witnesses at his trial this week in Mobile.

A jury needed just 40 minutes to convict him of five counts of capital murder, one for each child and one extra because the case involves multiple victims. Capital murder is Alabama's only charge that carries a potential death sentence.

A part-time shrimper, Luong acknowledged killing the children in one statement while in custody, according to authorities. But officials said he later recanted to police, reverting to his initial story that an Asian woman named Kim had taken the children.

He had entered a guilty plea at a hearing before the trial and said he wanted to die, but later retracted that plea.

The dead were identified as Hannah Luong, 2; Ryan Phan, 3; Lindsey Luong, 1; and Danny Luong, 4 months. Their four tiny bodies were recovered from waters off the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana coasts last year after a wide search involving hundreds of volunteers using boats and aircraft or scouring the shoreline on foot

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509983,00.html

[SaraSidle]

Jury Recommends Death for Father Who Threw 4 Children Off Alabama Bridge


MOBILE, Ala. — A jury recommended a death sentence Friday for a man convicted of killing four children by tossing them from an 80-foot-high Alabama coastal bridge.

The jury deliberated about an hour Friday before recommending that 38-year-old Lam Luong be executed. The Vietnamese refugee was convicted Thursday of murdering the children. The jury also had the option of recommending life without parole for the deaths of the children, who were tossed off a Gulf coast bridge in January 2008.

The judge handling the trial is not bound by the jury's decision.

Authorities said three of the children were the man's with his common-law wife. One other was his wife's child with another man. The children ranged in ages from 4 months to 3 years.

Luong, who emigrated from Vietnam at 14, presented no defense witnesses at his trial this week in Mobile.

A jury needed just 40 minutes to convict him of five counts of capital murder, one for each child and one extra because the case involves multiple victims. Capital murder is Alabama's only charge that carries a potential death sentence.

A part-time shrimper, Luong acknowledged killing the children in one statement while in custody, according to authorities. But officials said he later recanted to police, reverting to his initial story that an Asian woman named Kim had taken the children.

He had entered a guilty plea at a hearing before the trial and said he wanted to die, but later retracted that plea.

The dead were identified as Hannah Luong, 2; Ryan Phan, 3; Lindsey Luong, 1; and Danny Luong, 4 months. Their four tiny bodies were recovered from waters off the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana coasts last year after a wide search involving hundreds of volunteers using boats and aircraft or scouring the shoreline on foot

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509983,00.html

Nice job dan_uk. what a sad sad story though. IMO sara

[dan_uk]

A man who threw four children to their deaths from a bridge has been sentenced to death in the US state of Alabama.

The judge ordered that Lam Luong be shown pictures of the children every day he is on death row.

Luong, a Vietnamese refugee, looked towards his common-law wife as he was sentenced and apologised to her through an interpreter.

A jury in Mobile convicted him in March of murdering the children by throwing them 80ft (24m) into the sea.

The three youngest children - Hannah, two, Lindsey, one, and four-month-old Danny - were Luong's with his common-law wife, Kieu Phan.

The eldest, three-year-old Ryan, was Ms Phan's child from an earlier relationship.

'Drug addiction'

They died when Luong, an unemployed shrimper, dropped them from the Dauphin Island Bridge near Mobile after an argument with their mother in January 2008.

His defence had urged Circuit Judge Charles Graddick to sentence Luong to life in prison without parole, saying he was addicted to drugs and depressed.

But the judge said the aggravating circumstances were too great.

He said the children must have felt "sheer terror" during their fall from the bridge, and were alive when they hit the water.

An appeal is automatic under the death penalty law in Alabama.

[dallasvic]

Hi dan_uk,

Great job on getting these stories out to CL, even though they are sickening . Everyone needs to know warning signs. It might sound bad but this keeps up our children also need to be educated on these sign, like kids that have been molested in the past and speak up when some thing just does not seem right.
There had to have been some kind of tension in that family:shrug:

Your Friend
Dallas