But Ngeab Khin has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in her death.
By JANE SIMS,
FREE PRESS JUSTICE REPORTER
London Free Press (UK)
Hours after he stabbed and beat his wife to death, Ngeab Khin sat in a London police interview room rubbing his belly and spitting into a styrofoam cup.
His eyes were spinning and felt salty. He told an officer he dreamed he was flying with dragons.
He wanted a DNA test to find out what was inside him to make him do these things. He wanted a needle to make himself die.
He said his wife called him a Cambodian swear word and looked down on him.
Yesterday, 15 months after Yorn Mey, 49, his wife of 26 years was found dead in her bed at their Chippewa Drive home, he sat in the prisoner's box in a London court, rocking back and forth, while a Cambodian interpreter translated his murder trial.
Khin has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Khin's lawyer, Paul Carter, told Superior Court Justice Lynda Templeton Khin was responsible for his wife's death.
London police Det. Lori-Ann Kirk, the investigating officer, testified through questions by Middlesex Crown attorney Geoff Beasley to the events surrounding Mey's death.
Khin called 911 one minute after midnight June 28, 2005, and said in broken English, "I make a big mistake. I am kill with my wife," he said. "Send police to arrest me."
He added, "there is something inside me."
The dispatcher kept Khin on the line long enough that police could be heard in the background at the end of the call.
"I hit her with steel," Khin told an officer.
Later, in a garden behind the house, police found a small blue crowbar and a yellow-handled knife stuck in the ground.
Mey, who'd survived surgery eight months earlier, was found lying on her back, fully clothed on her blood-soaked bed. Blood had spattered on the wall above her head and on the ceiling.
An autopsy showed 10 stab wounds to her chest and breasts. She died of blunt force trauma to the right side of her head, which caused skull fractures and caved in the area above her ear.
She also had defensive bruises to her arms.
The couple had two sons and a daughter-in-law lived at their address.
They were devout Buddhists and the couple had bought tickets to travel to Cambodia two days after Mey's death to see a spiritual doctor about Khin's mental condition.
In Khin's bedroom, police found an envelope containing $7,130 US and $815 Cdn, two rings and a gold chain.
A letter written in Cambodian on the outside of the envelope was addressed to his sons. He wrote that he wasn't going to Cambodia and "Dad's illness is not the disease that can be healed."
He said in the letter there were evil spirits inside him.
The family told police Khin had shown signs of mental illness about two years before, after his mother's death.
He'd been on a disability pension since 1990 and had no history of violence.
The day before her death, a sad Mey confided in a friend she didn't want to go to Cambodia and leave her children.
She asked the friend to help take care of her children.
The trial continues today.
By JANE SIMS,
FREE PRESS JUSTICE REPORTER
London Free Press (UK)
Hours after he stabbed and beat his wife to death, Ngeab Khin sat in a London police interview room rubbing his belly and spitting into a styrofoam cup.
His eyes were spinning and felt salty. He told an officer he dreamed he was flying with dragons.
He wanted a DNA test to find out what was inside him to make him do these things. He wanted a needle to make himself die.
He said his wife called him a Cambodian swear word and looked down on him.
Yesterday, 15 months after Yorn Mey, 49, his wife of 26 years was found dead in her bed at their Chippewa Drive home, he sat in the prisoner's box in a London court, rocking back and forth, while a Cambodian interpreter translated his murder trial.
Khin has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Khin's lawyer, Paul Carter, told Superior Court Justice Lynda Templeton Khin was responsible for his wife's death.
London police Det. Lori-Ann Kirk, the investigating officer, testified through questions by Middlesex Crown attorney Geoff Beasley to the events surrounding Mey's death.
Khin called 911 one minute after midnight June 28, 2005, and said in broken English, "I make a big mistake. I am kill with my wife," he said. "Send police to arrest me."
He added, "there is something inside me."
The dispatcher kept Khin on the line long enough that police could be heard in the background at the end of the call.
"I hit her with steel," Khin told an officer.
Later, in a garden behind the house, police found a small blue crowbar and a yellow-handled knife stuck in the ground.
Mey, who'd survived surgery eight months earlier, was found lying on her back, fully clothed on her blood-soaked bed. Blood had spattered on the wall above her head and on the ceiling.
An autopsy showed 10 stab wounds to her chest and breasts. She died of blunt force trauma to the right side of her head, which caused skull fractures and caved in the area above her ear.
She also had defensive bruises to her arms.
The couple had two sons and a daughter-in-law lived at their address.
They were devout Buddhists and the couple had bought tickets to travel to Cambodia two days after Mey's death to see a spiritual doctor about Khin's mental condition.
In Khin's bedroom, police found an envelope containing $7,130 US and $815 Cdn, two rings and a gold chain.
A letter written in Cambodian on the outside of the envelope was addressed to his sons. He wrote that he wasn't going to Cambodia and "Dad's illness is not the disease that can be healed."
He said in the letter there were evil spirits inside him.
The family told police Khin had shown signs of mental illness about two years before, after his mother's death.
He'd been on a disability pension since 1990 and had no history of violence.
The day before her death, a sad Mey confided in a friend she didn't want to go to Cambodia and leave her children.
She asked the friend to help take care of her children.
The trial continues today.
4 comments:
Tragic story!! My condolence to the family. I had a daughter who went through a similiar fatal incident. Lucky she was rescued by her neighbors before she was too late. She then went to an university and graduated. I decided to enroll myself in school major in human services. Then I decided to quit my non-human services job. Now I'm working with Massachusetts the Department of Mental Health, handling cases of mentally ill clients. I'm really appreciated of my work to assist unfortunate people. I could see the differences of mental ill persons who take psychotropic medications regulary and who do not take them at all or irregulary. There are side effects of medications, no doubt about this fact. Plus I take into account of people belief and culture/tradition. But the benefits are far outweighted than the risks. With daily or weekly support from outreach/supported housing services along with medications, they are stable, going to work part time or even full time, and leading their social life in meaningful activities. There is time that they are relapsed but with close support/monitoring, the hospitalization is brief.
I hope that the lawyer would ask him to pledge insanity so that he would get a treatment in the Mental Health institution rather than in prison. Very Sad.
sk
Wd ppl out there claim that it is the effect the Killing field? Insane.
Never marry a person who has mental illness in their family history! Even the person don't have mental illness but your children might inherit mental illness!
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