Growing up in Vietnam, Bich Mai had a dream of becoming a Roman Catholic nun.
Instead, she got married to a Vietnamese man who lived in the United States. She substituted her original goal for another — helping her parents financially, friends and family members said Tuesday.
The 25-year-old woman didn’t live to achieve either goal.
Her brother-in-law, Long N. Tran, 38, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter Tuesday in her death. He was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison by Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Larry McKeeman.
Tran originally was charged with second-degree murder in Mai’s death a year ago in her Mill Creek-area home. She apparently was repeatedly beaten over the head with a full beer bottle.
Deputy prosecutor Paul Stern praised the work of Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives who investigated the case, but said he likely would have had evidence problems in a trial because potentially incriminating admissions by Tran would be excluded at trial.
That’s why Stern agreed to amend the charge to the lesser crime of manslaughter.
In a written statement to the court, Tran said he went to his bother’s home to get his wallet, and he argued with Mai.
“I struck her in the head with a beer bottle many times,” Tran wrote. “I did not mean to kill Bich Mai, but my actions caused her death and were very reckless.”
Mai’s husband, Ha Tran, discovered her body and called police on Nov. 20, 2006.
Officers at first arrested Ha Tran, 34, for investigation of homicide. He was released when his older bother came forward and admitted the killing to detectives.
Mai worked in a Mill Creek nail salon owned by her husband’s family.
She came to the United States from Vietnam in 2001 and became a U.S. citizen not long before her death, friends said.
Before she died, she petitioned the U.S. government to allow her parents to live in the United States, friends said at the court hearing.
Mai’s mother, Phuong Nguyen, attended Long’s sentencing and spoke to the judge through an interpreter.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or jhaley@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
