Left: Huy Nguyen (Fairfax County Police Department). Right: Alison “Kate” Laporta (Brinsfield Funeral Home & Crematory).
A Virginia man is accused of murdering his girlfriend and then changing his story about what happened after he brought her to the hospital.
Huy Nguyen, 47, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 38-year-old Alison “Kate” Laporta. While the trial just recently began, the case stretches back to April 17, 2024.
Officers with the Fairfax County Police Department responded to Inova Mount Vernon Hospital that night just before the clock struck midnight. A woman revealed to be Laporta had been shot, and police learned it was her boyfriend, Nguyen, who had transported her to the hospital, the police department said. Laporta was “suffering a gunshot wound to her upper body,” police added at the time, and she was transported to a different hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Investigators spoke with Nguyen about what happened. According to the law enforcement agency, “Nguyen initially told officers the shooting occurred in a parking lot.” However, as they investigated, “detectives disproved that allegation.”
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Nguyen, who reportedly held up his bloodied hands and arm while talking to police, told them they were in a parking lot in Annandale — about 20 minutes east of Fairfax — when a random bullet hit her, according to prosecutors, Washington, D.C., NBC affiliate WRC reported. However, investigators reportedly learned the couple had never actually been there.
“Detectives determined Nguyen shot LaPorta inside the vehicle,” the Fairfax County Police Department said at the time. “He then drove her to the hospital. Detectives found the firearm near Nguyen”s Lorton home.” He was subsequently charged with second-degree murder, as well as the use of a firearm in commission of a felony.
As the trial got underway this week, new allegations came to light, such as that Nguyen has changed his story about what happened.
Despite initially claiming his girlfriend, a mother of two, was hit by a random bullet, Nguyen’s defense team is now maintaining that she died by suicide and even shot at him, according to WRC, which added that defense attorneys introduced hundreds of pages of medical records from 2022 when Laporta allegedly had a mental health crisis and was admitted to a hospital.
Prosecutors, for their part, called men to the witness stand who allegedly were with the couple on the day Laporta was shot. The witnesses reportedly said Nguyen and Laporta had been fighting at a pool hall and that the suspect made threatening statements.
“The only way this argument ends is with a bullet,” one witness reportedly recalled Nguyen as saying.
“I’m going to shoot this girl,” Nguyen allegedly added that day.
Four bullet casings are said to have been recovered from the driver’s side of the SUV in which Laporta was shot, as well as one in Laporta’s purse, and the fatal bullet in the back seat.
An obituary for Laporta remembers her as “a beautiful soul” who “will be dearly missed by many.”
“Kate loved life in general but her greatest joy by far was her children,” it added. “She loved spending time with them and visiting the beaches at her family home in Bethany, DE.”
Closing arguments for Nguyen’s trial were set for Wednesday. If convicted on the second-degree murder charge, he could be imprisoned for up to 40 years, according to Virginia law.
