Father threw children off bridge

A man accused of throwing his four young children to their deaths from an Alabama bridge unexpectedly pleaded guilty, telling a judge he wanted to be put to death.

Lam Luong, 38, a Vietnamese refugee, entered the plea before Circuit Judge Charles Graddick at a hearing in Mobile on a change-of-venue motion.

Luong made the plea in a letter he gave to the judge. Under Alabama law, capital murder defendants must be tried before a jury even if they plead guilty. Luong's trial starts on Monday.

Prosecutors claim Luong argued with his common-law wife, Kieu Ngoc Phan, 23, before he drove the family van to the top of the two-lane bridge on January 7 last year and tossed the children into the cold Mississippi Sound 80 feet below.

The bodies of the children - Hannah Luong, two, Ryan Phan, three, Lindsey Luong, one, and Danny Luong, four months - were recovered from waters off the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana during a search that involved hundreds of volunteers in aircraft, boats and on foot.

Luong, who speaks Vietnamese, communicated with Judge Graddick through an interpreter. Court-appointed defence lawyers have opposed his desire to plead guilty, which he had expressed previously.

"It came as a complete surprise. We didn't have any idea that something like that would happen," Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson said, adding that prosecutors had been prepared to argue against changing the venue.

Although Luong has admitted guilt, the jury will make a recommendation of either death or life in prison without parole. The judge is not bound by the recommendation.

Luong came to the US from Vietnam when he was 14. The family was living near the fishing village of Bayou La Batre at the time of the deaths.

Kam Phengsisomboun, who has served as spokesman for the family of the mother, said they had no comment. But he said last week that the death penalty "would be too easy" for Luong.

"Let him suffer in prison for what he did to the kids," he said.

Mr Tyson has said he would recommend a death sentence if Luong was convicted.

US immigration records indicate that Luong, the son of a Vietnamese woman and a US serviceman, gained legal permanent residence status as a refugee, but never became a US citizen.

The shrimp industry worker who had been arrested on cocaine possession charges in 1997 and 2000, moved his family to Hinesville, Georgia, after Hurricane Katrina flooded the family's home in 2005. The family had returned to the bayou, moving into the home of the wife's mother, only a month before the bridge deaths.

Luong initially reported the children missing, saying he had given them to his girlfriend, living in a hotel In Gulfport, Mississippi, and that she failed to return them.

Prosecutors said he later broke down and confessed when the story did not add up, but Luong said he was harassed into making a false confession.

In a capital murder trial that follows a guilty plea, the prosecution presents its case for the jury, usually with little involvement by the defence.

Capital murder convictions are automatically appealed for higher court review.

This article is taken from The Belfast Telegraph