A 35-year-old butcher was sentenced to life in prison on Monday after being found guilty of stabbing his 28-year-old wife to death with a knife.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court “decides to sentence Be Vansak, also known as Toulah Rozet, to life in prison on charges of premeditated murder,” Presiding Judge Top Chhun Heng said.
Commune police chief Yoeun Chantha reported at the time of Mr. Vansak’s arrest that the body of his wife, Toulah Mayan, was found with 16 stab wounds to the head, torso and arms in front of their house in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district on July 2.
Mr. Vansak was immediately arrested, but pleaded innocent, saying that he had been out of the house attending to some cows at the time of the murder.
The couple’s 8-year-old son, however, witnessed the attack and told police his father had kicked his mother and cut her with a knife after an argument, Mr. Chantha said.
In addition to the life sentence, the judge ordered Mr. Vansak to pay 50 million riel, or about $12,500, in compensation to Toulah Mayan’s family.
