The Dak Nong Province People’s Court found 49-year-old Do Van Minh, former party secretary of nearby Lam Dong’s Lien Ha Commune, guilty of murder and abuse of trust to appropriate property, deliberate destruction of property and infringement of human bodies, graves, or remains.

In addition to his death sentence, Minh got eight years in jail for abuse of trust to appropriate property, five years for deliberate destruction of property and four for infringement upon human bodies, graves, or remains.

Saddled with debt, Minh committed the murder last year in an attempt to fake his own death so his wife and children could get VND18 billion ($778,053) as life insurance payment.

On April 25, 2020, Minh went to a graveyard in Dak Nong’s Dak Glong District to salvage some remains, but could not break open the tightly sealed coffin.

On May 4, Minh visited his nephew, 25-year-old Tran Nho Vuong, in Dak Glong, and murdered him with hammer blows to his forehead. He then took Vuong’s body into his pickup truck and took it to National Highway 28 in Dak Som Commune, about 70 km away from the murder location.

He deliberately rammed the vehicle into a guidepost, put Vuong’s body on the driving seat, put his watch on his wrist and left his own key there to fake an accident scene.

He then burned the truck with three cans of oil, before walking 1.5 km to a house to get a rental motorbike, which he rode to Binh Phuoc Province in the south. He was caught on May 10.

At the trial, Minh did not admit to murdering Vuong, saying the nephew was killed accidentally when he flung a hammer that hit him. He also said there was a witness to the accident, but the police said the person could not verify Minh’s claim, which was rejected by the court.

Towards the end of the trial, Minh said he regretted what he'd done and requested leniency so he could return to his family.