The Upper Makefield Township, Pa., duplex where the shooting took place on May 2, 2022 (Bucks County DA), Trinh Nguyen (inset left) pictured after her arrest (Fox29/screengrab), (right inset) Nelson Tini and Jeffrey Tini (obit)
A Pennsylvania mother who admittedly shot her two sons in the head as they slept in May 2022 one week after penning instructions in a “handwritten will” on how to handle her children’s ashes — and while facing eviction — was sentenced to spend the rest of her days in state prison on Wednesday.
There was never any doubt that Trinh T. Nguyen, now 40, was the prime suspect in the early morning May 2, 2022, murders of 9-year-old Nelson Tini and 13-year-old Jeffrey Tini at their Upper Makefield Township home, as she was caught on video pointing a gun at her ex-husband’s nephew, neighbor Gianni Melchiondo, a cousin of the victims. The criminal complaint said Melchiondo wrapped Nguyen in a “bear hug” and grabbed a “black revolver” she had pointed at his face that morning. Ngyuen “pulled the trigger two times, but the gun did not fire,” documents said.
From there, Nguyen fled the scene in a minivan to get heroin in New Jersey. When authorities found her, they saw she had left a note in her vehicle that said: “Please call 911! My children are Dead in their bed at 119 Timber Ridge Rd 18940.”
Trinh Nguyen via Fox29 screengrab
Investigators soon concluded that Nguyen planned to take her own life, saying a “handwritten will” dated April 25, 2022, was damning proof.
The will, signed with the killer’s name, included instructions on the handling of her ashes and the ashes of the sons she had yet to murder. But Nguyen has now pleaded guilty to two first-degree murder counts and one attempted murder count, resulting in Common Pleas Judge Raymond F. McHugh sentencing her to life in prison without parole twice over, plus 10 to 20 years — with each sentence to run consecutively.
More Law&Crime coverage: Mom left a note and ‘handwritten will’ after shooting two son as they slept
First Assistant District Attorney Jen Schorn of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said Nguyen “wrote a manifesto” that gave away her “simmering rage” and violent plans.
“It’s clear our evidence showed that this defendant had that wickedness of disposition that she had made these plans,” said the prosecutor. “She wrote a manifesto laying out what she was going to do, and you could see throughout the hate she had for others and the people she blamed.”
Trinh Nguyen (Bucks County DA)
The obituary for the young victims detailed that they both loved baseball.
“Jeffrey was an awesome swimmer, winning hundreds of medals and was also skilled in MMA. Nelson loved playing Baseball, was an amazing skier, had a passion for sneakers, and most of all just talking and playing with his friends,” the obit said. “Both these boys were taken from us too soon and will truly be missed by all who came to know them.”
Prosecutors said that they showed photos of the “always together and smiling” brothers in court, and that a number of those happy memories were spent alongside their baseball teammates.
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