When Shelton police officers arrived at a multi-family home on Maple Street in October 2010, they found a woman kneeling on a second-story porch covered in her own blood.
The blood, it seemed, was everywhere: The porch. The front door to her apartment. The kitchen inside.
And lying unconscious in a back room of her apartment was her brother, Toai Nguyen, also covered in blood and holding a butcher knife in his right hand.
“There was blood smeared throughout the whole apartment,” Shelton Officer Christopher Nugent said Tuesday, during opening day of a trial for Nguyen, 39.
The details of the scene on Oct. 5, 2010, came out for the first time through testimony in Nguyen’s trial at Superior Court in Milford.
Nguyen is facing a charge of attempted murder for the incident, in which he allegedly stabbed his sister several times, cut her throat and almost cut off her left ring finger.
The trial will determine whether Nguyen is sentenced to prison or sent to an institution for the mentally ill. He faces up to 20 years of confinement, in either outcome.
Nguyen’s attorney, Public Defender Kenneth Bunker, is pursuing a defense of not guilty by reason of mental defect in the case.
“There’s not a lot of dispute as to the facts that led to the arrest,” said Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Charles Stango.
Rather, the trial will try to determine Nguyen’s mental state at the time of the attack and whether he should be acquitted him due to reason of mental defect.
His sister has since recovered from the attack. She was not present in court Tuesday.
The Trial
Three people testified at the first day of Nguyen’s trial Tuesday: Nugent, Officer Ronald Piotrowski and Detective Ben Trabka.
The testimony laid out the details of the attack.
On June 19, the trial will continue, with testimony from a doctor about Nguyen’s mental state.
The prosecution entered 43 pieces of evidence Tuesday, including 24 photographs, 14 police reports and statements, medical records for Nguyen, and four pieces of physical evidence — including the butcher knife allegedly used in the attack.
Bunker plans to enter 58 pieces of evidence on June 19 — mostly medical records for Nguyen.
Judge Richard Arnold is hearing the case instead of a jury.
The Assault
Nguyen and his sister lived together on the third floor of a multi-family apartment building on Maple Street.
Nguyen has a history of mental problems, and had recently been released from prison after assaulting his father in 2008. In that attack, police said Nguyen beat his elderly father with The Club, an automobile anti-theft device, fracturing his skull.
On Oct. 5 2010, apparently off his medication, Nguyen walked into his sister’s room with a blank stare on his face, according to Tuesday’s testimony.
He left and came back twice before attacking the woman with a 7‑inch butcher knife, police said.
Photographs introduced into evidence show the sister’s wounds. A gash ran from her left ear almost all the way across her neck. She also had puncture wounds in the back of her neck.
Her left ring finger was cut so deep it almost became detached from her hand.
She was able to get out of the apartment and downstairs to seek help from her neighbors.
Nguyen passed out in the apartment after the attack, still holding the knife he allegedly used to attack her.
‘He Had a Blank Stare’
Nguyen didn’t try to fight police when they responded to the apartment. He was still wearing the clothes he had on during the attack.
Police Officer Ronald Piotrowski rode with Nguyen to Griffin Hospital for evaluation. Piotrowski said Nguyen didn’t talk, didn’t react. He just stared straight ahead.
Then, while getting treated at Griffin, Nguyen started talking to nobody in particular.
“He had a blank stare look,” said officer Piotrowski. “It was very flat. He didn’t even look directly at me. He looked at the wall.”
Nguyen gave an explanation about the attack: “He says he is very angry at his sister. She treats him very badly,” Piotrowski recalled. “And he wanted to kill the dog.”
The explanation appeared to be a complete fabrication, according to further testimony. Nguyen told police he had tried to kill his sister’s dog after it bit him several times. But there were no bite marks on his body.
He claimed his sister wouldn’t let him eat for three days straight, but there was food in every cabinet and a full refrigerator at the time of the attack.
When Detective Trabka interviewed Nguyen the next morning, before his arraignment, Nyugen said he attacked his sister because he was angry.
“He came home angry. He wanted to hurt someone,” Trabka said. “And he did.”
Trabka also noted Nguyen’s mental state.
“Mr. Nguyen basically had no affect at all,” Trabka said. “He didn’t show any sorrow, any remorse, any anger.”
Victims
Over the past two years, while Nguyen’s case has slowly worked its way through the court system, one person has been present to support him: Lili Whitmer.
Whitmer’s family and her church, St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Fairfield, helped Nguyen’s parents and nine siblings come to America from Vietnam in 1989.
Whitmer has stayed by Nguyen’s side, attending almost every court hearing and visiting him in prison throughout the ordeal.
“Toai did a terrible thing,” Whitmer said after court Tuesday. “He is full of remorse for that. He wishes he had never done these things. And he’s ready for what comes.”
Whitmer said Nguyen is her friend, and she plans to continue supporting him regardless of the outcome of the case.
“We have victims all over the place,” Whitmer said. “This case is really about mental illness.”
