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Trinh Nguyen pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and related counts in a Bucks County court on Wednesday, Dec. 20, the DA's Office announced.
Nguyen was set to be evicted from the Timber Ridge Road home she shared with her sons 13-year-old Jeffrey and 9-year-old Nelson Tini when she shot them in the head on May 2, authorities have said.
After, she went outside and pointed the same black revolver at her neighbor Gianni Melchiondo, who tried handing her a box of photos for her ex-husband, his uncle whom he worked with, investigators said.
Nguyen pulled the trigger two times, but the gun did not fire, prosecutors said. Melchionado wrapped Nguyen in a bear hug and eventually disarmed her, but she fled in her white Toyota Sienna minivan, officials said.
Detectives believe she was driving to New Jersey to buy heroin in an attempt to take her own life, but was found by police in a church parking lot in Washington’s Crossing a few hours later.
A search of her minivan turned up heroin, blood, .38-caliber ammunition, and a note that read “Please call 911! My children are Dead in their bed at 119 Timber Ridge Rd 18940," the DA's office said.
JT and Nelson, who had been hospitalized the day of the shooting, succumbed to their wounds on May 6 and their mom's charges were subsequently upgraded to first-degree murder, authorities said.
At her sentencing Wednesday, the DA's Office said 40-year-old Nguyen possessed a "simmering rage" apparent in her writings from before the killings.
“It’s clear our evidence showed that this defendant had that wickedness of disposition that she had made these plans,” First Assistant District Attorney Jen Schorn said.
“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.”
In addition to the murders of her sons, Nguyen pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of her neighbor and other related charges. She was sentenced to two life terms without the possibility of parole plus 10 to 20 years, the DA's Office said.
The lengthy sentence “will ensure that (Nguyen) will die within the four walls of a correctional facility," Schorn told the court.
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