Chandler [Cambodian-American] family still grappling with 2007 murder, but life presses on

Paul Ea holds his infant son Alexander while standing against a wall in the family's home displaying photographs including his late wife, Nisay Kang, who was murdered in 2007.

Nisay Kang

Kang's family: Paul Ea, his late wife Nisay Kang and their daughter Alisa pose for a family photograph before Kang's death in 2007.

Death penalty sought in mini-mart murder case Paul Ea, left, speaks of his wife, Nisay Kang, who was slain in 2007 while working at the mini-mart in Phoenix while his daughter Alisa Ea, 8, looks on. The mini-mart was located in the Peaks at Papago Park apartment complex in Phoenix near the Tempe border.

Monday, August 29, 201

By Mike Sakal, Tribune East Valley Tribune

For Paul Ea, the evening of May 24, 2007, and the next day have stayed fresh in his mind as he and his family sat through court hearings and grieved the death of his former wife Nisay Kang, who died at the hands of a man she often helped.

Ea is moving forward with his life while maintaining his tight-knit Cambodian family, getting remarried in early 2010 to Mey Kim, a woman to whom he was introduced by Kang’s sister and a friend with whom he became acquainted in their native Cambodia nearly three years ago. Ea and Kim gave birth to a son, Alexander, on July 12. Ea also has watched his and Kang’s daughter, Alisa, now 13, grow up sometimes asking about her mother, and asking Ea what her mother would want her to be as she practices piano and violin and does well in school.

Yet, Ea, a resident of Chandler, knows Wednesday will be perhaps the biggest hurdle to overcome in helping to close a chapter in his life as Jesus Arturo Martinez, the man who beat and stabbed Kang, 36, to death inside the convenience store she owned and operated at the former Peaks of Papago Park apartment complex in east Phoenix, will be sentenced for her death. Arturo Martinez pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery-related offenses Aug. 25 in connection with Kang’s death and avoided a trial. He will be sentenced before a jury in Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Paul McMurdie’s courtroom and still could face the death penalty.

[Cambodia] Woman [in Edmonton] was slain: cops

Husband of city's 16th homicide victim this year in police custody

Sat, August 2, 2008
By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA
Edmonton Sun

The death of a woman whose body was found in an apartment suite on Wednesday has been ruled a homicide, police said yesterday.

The victim is 40-year-old Deang Huon. Police found her dead in the bedroom of a suite at 10955 106 St. after a relative asked authorities to check on her well-being.

So far, police have yet to lay charges. But on Wednesday, they took Huon's husband into custody.

At the time police got to the Kent apartment on Wednesday, they found a man "who was acting a little delusional." They've since been trying to interview the man, who is Cambodian.

The case shocked the couple's landlord, Allan Thompson, who also lives in the building. He described the husband, whom he identified as Narin Sok, as "peaceful."

The pair had lived at the Kent building since 2000 and had a relationship that appeared to be "loving towards each other," said Thompson.

LANDLORD MYSTIFIED

"I know Narin very well. I'm befuddled and mystified."

Thompson was renovating one of the building's suites on Wednesday when police arrived with a woman he identified as the couple's niece. He opened the door for them but didn't learn police had discovered a body until they took a man into custody.

So far, police haven't said how Huon died, something they're not planning to do while they continue investigating the killing.

In the meantime, the case has unsettled tenants in the building, many of whom are also Cambodian and knew the couple well.

"My reaction is ... concern for Narin, sorrow for what happened to (his wife) and worry about what the tenants are going to think," Thompson said.

At the time police arrested Sok, he was acting strangely.

"We're not doctors by any means, but he didn't appear to be in the proper state of mind," said Det. Bill Clark at the scene earlier this week.

It wasn't clear how long Huon had been dead when police got to the building.

The case is Edmonton's 16th homicide of the year.