SINGAPORE: A woman accused of killing her boyfriend described their tumultuous relationship, rocked by violence and drinking, when she took the stand for the first time on Thursday (Apr 17).
Nguyen Ngoc Giau, 43, is charged with murdering Mr Cho Wang Keung, 51, along the fifth-floor common corridor of Block 562, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 on Jul 15, 2021.
Mr Cho died of stab wounds to the neck, chest and back.
Nguyen lived with Mr Cho in a three-room flat in the Housing Board block. Another tenant named Tan Cheng Mun rented one of the bedrooms.
On the stand, she was shown video footage of herself moving around the flat, buying beers from a minimart, and quarrelling with Mr Cho and Mr Tan in the hours leading up to the fatal incident.
But under questioning by her lawyer, she told the court she did not remember these actions, and that she believed this was because she was drunk at the time.
Giving evidence through a Vietnamese interpreter, Nguyen, who is a Singapore permanent resident, said that she first came to Singapore in 2010 and met her husband while working in a KTV.
They married after two months and had two children together.
The petite woman testified that she last visited her children in 2019, and that her last contact with her husband was some time before that. They are still legally married.
The court previously heard that Nguyen moved into the flat as a tenant in July 2020 and initially slept in the living room. She became romantically involved with Mr Cho around October 2020.
Recounting the start of her relationship with Mr Cho, who was also married, Nguyen said they were introduced by a mutual friend in 2020 and she started renting a room at his flat.
Nguyen said the deceased grew fond of her after she took care of his daughter, who was over two years old at the time.
She said the child was the one who brought them together by holding their hands and asking them to start a relationship.
When defence lawyer Favian Kang asked what her relationship with Mr Cho was like, she said they would drink and quarrel every day, and fight about five times a week.
Mr Kang asked Nguyen to recount three of their most serious fights before Mr Cho’s death.
On one occasion, the couple fought at home after each accused the other of seeing other people on the side. Nguyen said that the deceased beat her and injured her face.
Nguyen said that when she asked to end the relationship on another occasion, the deceased told her to return the gifts he had given her.
She added that when she refused, the other tenant, Mr Tan, “pressed” her head to the floor while the deceased removed a ring, watch and necklace she was wearing. She said she was injured as a result of this.
On the third occasion, the couple fought at the void deck of their block. Nguyen said she asked to break up again, and asked the deceased to buy an air ticket back to Vietnam for her.
Mr Cho replied that he “hoped that the airplane will … drop into the sea”, Nguyen said. Angered, she hit him with a newspaper, which turned into a physical altercation. The police were called.
Mr Tan previously testified that about two to three months before Mr Cho died, the couple fought at the void deck of their flat and both were arrested by the police.
“I DON’T REMEMBER ANYTHING”
Nguyen’s lawyer then took her through the days leading up to the fatal stabbing at about 12.55am on Jul 15, 2021. He told the judge that the incident started two to three days before.
Nguyen said she asked to break up with Mr Cho again on the night of Jul 12, 2021, after another fight.
On Jul 13, 2021, Nguyen bought beer and food home and drank into the evening. She said she usually bought four to six cans of beer at a time, but could not remember how much she drank that time.
She recalled locking the bedroom door, turning off her phone and lying down on the mattress as she was afraid that Mr Cho would enter and they would fight again.
She recalled hearing the voices of Mr Cho and Mr Tan, and said it was only when she could not hear their voices anymore that she left the room to find more beer and continue drinking.
Nguyen said she could not remember whether she drank until the morning.
But when she woke up on Jul 14, 2021, she recalled Mr Cho scolding her for locking the bedroom door the night before. She also recalled going out during the day to get more beer.
Mr Kang then showed Nguyen video footage of herself from closed-circuit television cameras in the flat’s kitchen in the late morning to early afternoon that day.
Nguyen recalled that she took a knife from the kitchen and sharpened it because she wanted to kill herself.
She told the court this was because she missed her children and her deceased father, who “never beat (her)”.
When asked about 35 calls that she made to Mr Cho and six text messages she sent him that day, she said she did not remember this.
She also did not recall going to a minimart, where CCTV footage captured her buying four cans of beer at about 9.15pm.
“I don’t remember anything,” she told the court, adding that this was because “I was drunk already”.
Mr Kang then showed Nguyen CCTV footage from when she was in the kitchen at about 11.20pm and 12.10am that night. He asked if she remembered vomiting, but she said she did not.
He also showed her a video she took on her phone, which captured Mr Cho and Mr Tan standing near the lift as she asked Mr Cho where he had been drinking and grabbed his collar.
Nguyen said she could not remember this incident.
According to Mr Tan’s statement, on Jul 14, 2021, while he was having drinks with the deceased at a coffee shop in Bishan, the deceased told him that he wanted to break up with Nguyen.
However, the deceased told Mr Tan that whenever he brought it up, Nguyen would demand a “break-up fee” of between S$5,000 and S$10,000, the court previously heard.
When they returned after midnight, Mr Tan said that Nguyen started questioning Mr Cho about his whereabouts and where he had been drinking.
A report by the Institute of Mental Health on Aug 16, 2021, said that Nguyen “clearly” has an alcohol use disorder and was likely in “a state of acute alcohol intoxication” at the time of the alleged offence.
The trial continues with Nguyen back on the stand on Apr 22.
If convicted, she will face either the death penalty or life imprisonment.
