Alex Nguyen laughed when he learned that Duc Pham had died from a beating that occurred during an interrogation about a theft from a Chinatown gambling house, a government witness testified in state court Friday.
Nguyen, 35, is on trial for kidnapping and murder for the alleged fatal beating in an illegal gambling house in downtown Honolulu in April 2011.
Maauga Imoa, 28, testified that he worked security for the Maunakea Street game room. He said he took Pham there from another game room April 1 for questioning over the theft of $1,500. Pham also worked at the Maunakea Street gambling house.
Imoa said Nguyen didn’t work at the game room, but was there when he arrived with Pham.
He said he saw Nguyen punch and kick Pham and hit him multiple times with a heavy metal chain. And when Pham tried to run away, Imoa said Nguyen caught him, hit Pham with the metal base of a table and pulled him back.
Imoa said he punched Pham four times in the head and body before Pham admitted stealing the $1,500 and apologized. But Nguyen continued to hit Pham with a full beer bottle and a metal chair and stomped on him, Imoa said. He said he told Nguyen "enough already" several times but that Nguyen continued to beat Pham and even asked for a knife.
He said Pham passed out and started "snoring" after one particular kick Nguyen delivered to Pham’s face. Imoa said Nguyen then kicked Pham in the face four more times. When the beating finally stopped, he said Nguyen looked around the room and said, "Who’s next?"
Imoa said he cleaned up a still unconscious Pham after Nguyen left the game room and checked on Pham every 45 minutes. When he noticed foam coming out of Pham’s mouth, Imoa said he and Manu Tonga, who also provided security for the gambling house, took Pham to the Queen’s Medical Center, where the 42-year-old Pham was pronounced dead.
The next day, Imoa said he, Nguyen and Tonga met with two others who were in the game room the night before, Sione Vulangi and Patrick Manzodra, at Lanakila Park in Kalihi. When he told the others that Pham died, he said Nguyen "laughed and said, ‘Good for him.’"
Tonga and Vulangi and Imoa have pleaded guilty to kidnapping and assaulting Pham in a deal with the prosecutor.
Nguyen did not testify in his own defense, but presented a witness who said she heard Pham moaning as he was being carried out of the game room and that Pham stopped moaning after one of the men carrying him dropped Pham on his head.
