NC man pleads guilty to killing his wife. Here’s how long he’ll be in prison
More than a year after stabbing his wife and himself in their home, a Wake Forest man pleaded guilty to her murder in February.
Xuan Thanh Pham, 64, pleaded guilty Feb. 5 to second-degree murder in the Sept. 5, 2023, death of Hue Thi Lu’o’ng, 58, court records show.
As part of a plea arrangement, Pham received less time, with Judge Bryan Collins sentencing him to a minimum of 16 years and a maximum of 20 years and three months in prison, according to court documents.
Collins also ordered Pham to undergo substance abuse and mental health evaluations.
Scant details have been released in the double stabbing. Pham was briefly hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after the attack, The News & Observer previously reported. In his first appearance in court Sept. 16, 2023, he sobbed as he spoke with family members in the gallery in Vietnamese.
“He cried, and even wailed loudly at one moment, lifting his hands to the ceiling and then covering his face with his hands, before being escorted out of the courtroom,” The N&O reported at the time.
Pham received credit for 508 days served in jail, which will take just over a year off his sentence.
Pham is currently incarcerated at downtown Raleigh’s Central Prison, online records show.
No obituary could be found online for Lu’o’ng.
North Carolina saw 74 homicides and 23 suicides involving domestic violence in 2023, according to records kept by the N.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
