SINGAPORE – A woman who rented a room in a three-room flat became romantically involved with her landlord, but the relationship ended with the stabbing of the 51-year-old man, the High Court heard on the first day of her murder trial on April 8.
Nguyen Ngoc Giau, 43, a Singapore permanent resident from Vietnam, is charged with murdering Mr Cho Wang Keung at the fifth-floor common corridor at Block 562 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, at about 1am on July 15, 2021.
She denies the murder charge.
Photographs of the attack that day as it happened were taken by another tenant of Mr Cho’s, and were submitted in court.
If convicted, she faces life imprisonment or the death penalty.
The prosecution said it will present evidence to show that Giau was angry after quarrelling with Mr Cho that morning, and had stabbed him with the intention to cause the wounds which led to his death.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Benedict Teong said the prosecution will present evidence from 65 witnesses, of whom 18 are expected to take the stand. It will also rely on statements recorded from Giau during police investigations, as well as video footage and photographs.
In the dock, Giau kept her head down, her shoulder-length hair covering most of her face. She broke down in tears at various points during the court proceedings.
Giau moved into the flat in July 2020 as a tenant, and initially slept in the living room. By around October 2020, she was sharing a bedroom with Mr Cho, a jewellery assembler.
Another tenant, Mr Tan Cheng Mun, occupied another bedroom.
According to the prosecution’s opening address, Mr Cho and Giau were on the verge of breaking up at the time of the attack.
Mr Cho wanted to break up with Giau and evict her from the flat, said the prosecution.
On July 14, 2021, Giau made over 30 calls to Mr Cho, who had blocked her number.
She also drank about 10 cans of beer that day, and at one point she sharpened a kitchen knife, said the prosecution.
Mr Cho and Mr Tan returned to the flat past midnight, on July 15, 2021, and were confronted by Giau at the common corridor.
One of the videos that were played in court was taken by Giau on her mobile phone when she confronted Mr Cho as he was returning to the flat.
She could be heard asking him in Mandarin where he had gone drinking.
As the confrontation got more heated, Mr Cho asked Mr Tan to call the police.
Giau then went back into the flat to retrieve the knife she sharpened earlier that day, and attacked Mr Cho, said the prosecution.
When she saw Mr Tan taking photos of the assault, she turned her attention towards him and he fled down the stairs.
After inflicting multiple stab wounds to Mr Cho’s neck, chest and back, she then turned the knife on herself, said the prosecution. The court heard that Giau suffered multiple stab wounds to the stomach.
Police officers arriving at the scene found Mr Cho and Giau, both covered in blood, along the common corridor.
Body-worn camera footage showed Mr Cho responding to questions from a police officer, saying that Giau stabbed him but he did not know how she became injured.
He was pronounced dead at about 7.15am at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
A psychiatric report on Giau stated that she clearly had an alcohol use disorder and was likely in a state of acute alcohol intoxication at the time.
Mr Tan, Mr Cho’s other tenant, was one of the witnesses who took the stand on April 8.
According to the Malaysian man, Giau began suspecting in August 2020 that Mr Cho was having relationships with other women, and would get into arguments with him.
On the night of the attack, Mr Tan and Mr Cho were having drinks at a coffee shop in Bishan where Mr Cho said he was trying to end his relationship with Giau, but she had demanded a $5,000 “break-up fee”.
Cross-examined by Giau’s assigned lawyer, Mr Favian Kang, Mr Tan said Mr Cho was married to another Vietnamese woman, with whom he had a daughter.
Mr Cho and his wife had numerous arguments, and the police was called to the flat on several occasions, said Mr Tan.
The wife moved out in June 2020, said Mr Tan, who testified through a Mandarin interpreter.
Mr Tan said Mr Cho also often quarrelled with Giau, and their arguments sometimes escalated into physical fights.
He confirmed that two to three months before the fatal attack, both Mr Cho and Giau were arrested for fighting at the void deck.
Mr Kang played footage from the CCTV camera in the kitchen on July 12, 2021, about two days before the stabbing.
Giau could be seen giving Mr Cho a kiss, while a group of his friends were at the flat.
The defence lawyer also questioned Mr Tan over footage from the door camera captured minutes before the stabbing.
Mr Tan could be heard calling the police to take Giau away and using a Cantonese vulgarity to describe her.
Giau could be heard retorting to Mr Tan that the flat was not his home. She also shouted “I love you” to Mr Cho.
Mr Kang contended that Mr Tan was contributing to the couple’s dispute. Mr Tan replied: “Yes, a bit.”
The trial continues on April 9.
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