O.C. Mom who Attacked Children with a Knife Eligible for Life Sentence, Jury Finds

By PAUL ANDERSON
City News Service

An Orange County jury found today that a Garden Grove woman’s non-fatal knife attacks on her 5- and 3-year-old daughters five years ago was done with premeditation and deliberation, making her eligible for a life sentence.

Thuy Thi Le in February was previously convicted of attempted murder and child abuse, but a jury in February deadlocked 11-1 in favor of sentencing enhancements for premeditation and deliberation and Orange County Superior Court Judge M. Marc Kelly declared a mistrial on the enhancements only.

On Wednesday, the current panel will begin hearing evidence in the sanity phase of the trial. If the 43-year-old defendant is found not guilty by reason of insanity, she will be sent to a state mental health facility indefinitely. If not, she will be facing a prison sentence.

Jurors in February found that Le inflicted great bodily injury on the older daughter, but rejected a sentencing enhancement for great bodily injury to the younger girl, Deputy District Attorney John Christl said.

Le had been living with her boyfriend of 10 years, who fathered her two daughters. But their relationship was suffering because she felt he was not responsive to her stress from a short-sale on a home and the recent death of her grandmother, Christl said during the previous trial, calling it “a case about a woman who took extreme measures to get the attention of her boyfriend.”

A week before Le stabbed daughters Rhiana, then 5, and Jobeth, then 3, then inflicted “superficial” wounds on herself, she went to a hospital complaining of nausea brought on by disagreements with her longtime boyfriend, Robert Greer, Christl said.

“She pleaded with him, begged him” to listen to her problems, the prosecutor said. “She even went as far as to say the children will pay.”

Greer was driving a taxi when Le took their daughters to a family member’s Westminster home to stay the night. When she awoke the morning of Sept. 16, 2009, at her cousin’s home at 14372 Starsia St., the defendant “grabbed a knife and stabbed Rhiana, while she was sleeping, in the heart,” and then stabbed her other daughter in the chest, Christl said. Le then tried to stab herself, but she only sustained “superficial wounds,” the prosecutor said.

Rhina’s heart was nicked and she required surgery, Christl said. The other daughter was not as seriously injured, he said.

Le called 911 and reported that she stabbed her children and wanted to kill herself, but the knife and scissors she used wouldn’t penetrate her skin deep enough, Christl said.

Le had received a prescription for a drug to treat depression a week before the attack, but she did not take the medicine because she feared the side effects, Christl said.

Le’s attorney, Adam Vining of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, said in the prior trial that his client is a “caring and loving mother” who had never hurt her children before but “was under a lot of stress. That doesn’t excuse it, but it tells you something about her mindset.”

Le was growing more paranoid prior to attacking her children, Vining said.

“She thought her kids had been switched out. She didn’t know if they were her kids,” Vining said. “She didn’t know who or what Robert was... She thought Robert was able to read her thoughts and was torturing her mentally.”

Le also erroneously thought the FBI was “after her”; that she was being “chased by gangsters”; and that the rental home in Garden Grove where the family was living was haunted and that there was a “demon curse” on it, Vining said.

When a physician prescribed medicine for her, she did not take it because “she was afraid they were trying to poison her,” Vining said.

PHOTO Patch file photo.

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