Toai Nguyen is going to spend many years in an institution.
Whether the institution is a state prison or a psychiatric facility is up to Judge Richard Arnold.
The attempted murder trial against Nguyen wrapped up at Superior Court in Milford Tuesday with testimony from Dr. Peter M. Zeman, a psychiatrist at the Institute of Living in Hartford.
Zeman testified that Nguyen was delusional, paranoid, and having “command hallucinations” that told him to hurt his sister on Oct 5, 2010, when he allegedly stabbed her several times in the Shelton apartment they shared.
Nguyen’s attorney, public defender Kenneth Bunker, says Nguyen is not guilty by reason of insanity, and should be sent to the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Middletown.
If Judge Arnold finds Nguyen guilty, he could face up to 20 years in prison. If he finds Nguyen not guilty by reason of insanity, Nguyen could be ordered to stay at Whiting for up to 20 years.
A next court date was tentatively scheduled for Aug. 31, when Arnold could have a decision.
State prosecutors have not argued for prison in this case. Instead, Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Charles Stango just laid out the facts of the attack during his questioning of three police officers on the first day of the trial June 12.
Tuesday was the second day in Nguyen’s trial for the single charge of attempted murder.
The Crime
During the first day of testimony on June 12, police officers from the Shelton Police Department outlined the crime scene at the Maple Street apartment on Oct. 5, 2010.
The officers said when they arrived on scene, Nguyen’s sister was on the porch outside the apartment, with a 7‑inch wound on her throat, and stab wounds on her head and arms. Her left ring finger had almost been sliced off her hand.
She, and the apartment, were covered in blood, officers testified.
The Valley Independent Sentinel is not identifying the victim. She was not present at either trial day.
Nguyen was found passed out on a bed in the apartment, still holding the butcher knife in his hand.
Officers described him as in a daze when they arrested him.
“He had a blank stare look,” said Officer Ronald Piotrowski. “It was very flat. He didn’t even look directly at me. He looked at the wall.”
Paranoid Schizophrenic
The second day of testimony was dedicated to the last 10 years of Nguyen’s mental health.
He has a well-documented history of paranoid schizophrenia — a mental illness that causes Nguyen to hear voices, and believe people are trying to hurt him.
The disease seems to manifest itself in anger and violence toward his family members, according to Zeman, Nguyen’s doctor.
Zeman testified that he has evaluated Nguyen four times since 2009.
The first two evaluations were for a court case where Nguyen was accused of severely beating his father with The Club, an anti-theft device for cars, while his father was driving him to the hospital during a psychotic episode.
Nguyen pleaded guilty to assault charges, and served two years in prison for the crime.
Nguyen, who never became a naturalized citizen after moving to America with his family, was released in 2010 to the custody of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE released Nguyen back to his mother’s care.
Click here to read a New Haven Register article about his release, and the concern it caused.
58 Medical Records
Bunker introduced 58 exhibits into the record during the trial Tuesday. They were all medical records for Nguyen.
Zeman’s testimony touch on only some of the records, which outlined several trips to various hospital psychiatric wards during Nguyen’s episodes.
The earliest reference to symptoms of schizophrenia was in 2003, according to Zeman.
Between 2005 and 2008, he was hospitalized repeatedly for psychotic episodes.
On Valentine’s Day in 2005, Nguyen’s brother brought Nguyen to Griffin Hospital, saying he was “paranoid and acting bizarre for the past eight weeks.”
By early 2006, Nguyen’s family brought him back to the hospital because he was “actively hallucinating and paranoid.” He told doctors he didn’t feel right, and that he believed others wanted to harm him.
Zeman referenced several more admissions to hospital psychiatric wards, where intake reports indicate Nguyen believed his family was out to harm him. He believed his brother wanted to castrate him, and that his father was trying to hurt him, according to the reports.
Each time he was released with a prescription for anti-psychotic medicine for schizophrenia.
But he would inevitably stop taking the medication, the reports indicated.
While some diagnosed schizophrenics can function without their medication for a period of time, Zeman said that was not the case with Nguyen.
“In Mr. Nguyen’s case, invariably, within two to three weeks he becomes ill … and presents a risk to himself and other people,” Zeman testified.
A Tragedy
The stabbing was “a tragedy for everyone,” Bunker said during his closing statements.
Nguyen’s sister is traumatized, and his family is still healing emotionally from the two attacks.
But Nguyen also suffers, Bunker said.
“He suffers from a very serious, very chronic illness,” Bunker said. “He suffers from an illness and doesn’t have the slightest idea how to address it, and it keeps coming back.”
