FL Man Slashed Wife’s Throat, Held Her Hand As She Died: Police

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL — Police said a Florida man stabbed his wife, put on her favorite music and held her hand as she died.

Xichen Yang, 21, was charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, jail records showed. He remains behind bars at the Seminole County detention center.

Police said Yang admitted to killing his wife, Nhu Quynh Pham, whom police found lying in a pool of blood in a bathroom tub of their home at Charter Pointe Apartments on Ballard Street.

According to the Alamonte Springs Police Department, police found Pham with a deep cut to the right side of her neck and blood pouring from her stomach. They also found two pink rubber gloves on the hallway floor with a bottle of pink cleaning disinfectant next to it.

Altamonte Springs police found Pham while doing a welfare check about 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to the police report.

Yang's boss, who runs a pool maintenance company in Orlando, called 911 to report that he called Yang to find out why he wasn't at work. Yang admitted to killing his wife and was trying to clean up the scene, police said.

Yang was not in the apartment at the time police arrived. They arrested him a short time later.

Police said Yang admitted in an interview with police that he cut his wife with a knife.

"After cutting Pham with the knife, she began 'crawling down the wall' towards the door. Yang then took her to the bathroom, placed her in the bathroom tub, played her favorite music and held her hand for what he estimates to be about 10 minutes until she died," the police report said.

Yang did not call an ambulance for his wife, according to the report. Police said Yang told them that he cleaned up the blood on the walls and floor after his wife died.

According to police, Yang told his boss on the phone that he was angry at his wife for burning his passport.

"During the interview, Yang acknowledged that he could feel himself getting more and more angry before he became violent with Pham and that he could have stopped short of killing her," the police report said.

When asked why he did not stop himself, police said Yang explained that was "not how he was raised" and that he is the type of person who always "goes all the way."

Yang's next court appearance is Aug. 2 in Seminole County, court records show.