A Hanoi court on Wednesday sentenced a teenager to death for killing his own grandmother supposedly under the influence of drugs last year.

Do Tuan Anh, a 19-year-old boy from the capital’s Soc Son District, admitted to murder at the court.

Anh had bought drugs for use with his friends with the money he got from pawning his own mobile phone a few days before the killing, according to his testimony.

On November 27, 2019, he was turned down when asking his friends to come to his house and steal chickens for sale to make money in order to get back his mobile phone from the pawnshop.

Afraid that his mother would know of his pawning the phone, Anh then went to the house of his grandmother, Ly Thi N. born in 1937, to borrow VND200,000 (US$9).

The boy woke up his grandmother to ask for money upon arrival at her house.

N. rejected him and requested her grandchild to return the knife he had borrowed from her before.

The teenager became furious and thought of beating his own grandmother to forcefully take the money he wanted.

Court documents showed that Anh attempted to sneak into a neighbor’s home to look for a knife in vain.

He thus returned to the kitchen of his house to search for a knife, only to see a long metal stick there.

Anh came back to his grandmother’s house and hit her in the head with the stick when she was sleeping.

N. was startled waking up and seeing Anh running out of her house, scolding him along the way.

Anh thought she would tell everyone he had hit her so he returned and brutally killed his own grandmother.

He searched her pocket for money but could not find anything so he left for his friend’s house.

Anh blamed the killing on the influence of drugs at his trial.

The Hanoi People’s Court gave him the death sentence considering the brutality of his act, despite his family’s plea for a less harsh punishment.

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