Blood Will Tell - A Plague on Both Your Houses | 4

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Sitting in county jail, Anh wrestles with his decision to stay silent, while another brush with death forces Trung to confront his choices. Will he finally tell the truth and set his brother free?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Audible subscribers can listen ad-free. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. Toward the end of Hamlet, there's a duel between Hamlet and Ophelia's brother, Laertes. For Laertes, there's a lot at stake. Hamlet has killed his father and pushed his sister to madness and suicide. So Laertes brings a poison-tipped sword to get his revenge. But in the middle of the fight, the swords are swapped. At the end, Laertes is stabbed with his own poison sword.

Shakespeare was a master of turning irony into tragedy. I think about this a lot when I think about the next act of this story. The night that Trung convinces on to put his textbooks down and join him at a party, a night he promises they could have some fun together. I think about Laertes because of one crucial detail from that night, A detail, both ironic and tragic. When Trong is getting ready to go out, he decides to leave his knife behind. It's a regular college party after all.

Nobody from the lifestyle will be there. No Bobby, no Tim. Why would he need protection? I was like, no, I don't want to do something stupid. Then later, when he sees On drunk and getting upset, he slips On's knife into his own pocket, because he doesn't want on to do something stupid. And so when he sees his brother go down in the fight,

it's his brother's weapon he reaches for. Trung had tried to keep the danger away, but he failed to realize that he is the dangerous one. He makes a terrible choice to prove his courage, and he will now make a second terrible choice to preserve his freedom. He will do nothing. My way of coping with that reality is to go

live life as if nothing has happened. And in the months to come, Trung will continue his silence, continue thinking he is not the agent of danger, until he simply cannot pretend anymore. From Wundery and Campside Media, I'm Jen Miller, and this is Blood Will Tell. This is episode four,

a plague on both your houses. Trung pulls up to Santa Clara County Jail and parks across the street. Due to his accessory charge and his status as Ayn's co-defendant, he's restricted from visiting his brother, who is sitting inside. But today is their 19th birthday, and Trung wants to do something special for Aun, and he's got an idea. A handful of their friends climb out of the car with balloons and a cape.

Then they stand there, awkwardly searching the windows of the concrete tower. Everybody is just kind of looking up and hearing people, bumping on the windows. Trong and his friends are yelling and waving their arms, hoping the guy they see up there waving back is on. It is. I was like, hey, hey, my brother's down there. I was telling everybody,

I look my brother down there, my twin brother. It was a good moment because usually, when I'm alone, I'm always sad in there. The birthday gesture from Trung makes him feel good in the moment, but it's still just a gesture, because On is still in jail. For a homicide, his brother committed. On has now been in custody for over six months.

In Santa Clara County, incarcerated people charged with a felony spend an average of 353 days in jail before they're let out or transported to state prison. On is on day 177, and he still hasn't told anyone the truth about what happened, not even his lawyer. So why hasn't he said anything? Why isn't he fighting for his innocence?

Could he really love his brother that much to sacrifice his own freedom? There are actually multiple reasons why he stays quiet. Some take a while to crystallize, and we'll get to them. But from the moment on learns the charges have been switched, there is one key reason he keeps his mouth shut. The code.

The agreement the brothers established the day after the party, Don't talk, which is also the foundational rule of the lifestyle. Because breaking that code makes you a target. It's bad for all the people who snitch. Yeah, it'll be bad for me too. The stabbing wasn't gang-related, but that doesn't matter. The important thing is how the gangs will see it. If Ahn is willing to give up his own twin brother, what else might he be willing to give up?

Trung knows this too. If he speaks up, he's fucked from the lifestyle. He's going to be marked, right? For On, this paralysis is excruciating. In the early days and weeks of his incarceration, he's just in shock. And it's just so hard to explain. It's just like I felt numb, I guess, yeah. But numbness eventually turns to tears.

And then later on, I cried to myself. in the room. Then tears give way to disbelief. I just ask God, like, this is this really happening? And after this, he wonders what, if anything, his life amounts to. What is my future? Like, why did I come to America to be in here right now? On's old click leader, Kevin, watches on process all of this. I was locked up in a cell in 7B, Maine jail north, general population. By some stroke of luck or fate, or just small worldness,

On is taken to the same cell block as Kevin. I saw a little bit of his tattoo. I started screaming. I started banging the door. I was like, Ah, oh, I ran straight to him. And then when I finally embraced him, hugged him, tell I love him. I cried.

I didn't care. You're not putting it in their expression. You know, it's also seen as weakness, but I cried. God, I just like, man, I missed him. After two and a half years of being apart, it's a joyful reunion for both Ayn and Kevin. Every day that goes by, On feels increasingly abandoned by his brother.

So Kevin steps in to support him, resuming his role as a mentor. He's even able to pull some strings and gets On assigned to his cell. I was on the upper bunk. He's on a bottom bunk. The friends develop a sort of routine. Kevin pulls out his contraband iPod. downloaded with tons of movies.

We were actually huddered up together. We would roll our mattress up, make it like a cushion, sort of a couch. Then they put on their DIY cozy loungewear. We would steal extra shirts and make those into shorts. Yeah, you just put your two legs into the sleeves, and then you tie it up. And then they get the movie going.

One with Zach Ephron, neighbors. That was really funny. And then after the movie. We were prayed together. He finished it by knocking on the table. Then they put the mattress back until the next day, when they do a version of this routine again. Kevin is trying his best to help on, but he's concerned.

You can tell him I said this. He was a stress case, too. You know, he was a relationship at the time. So he was worried about that. He was worried about Trump. He was worried about his family. And he was just always worried. Yeah, he'd seen me cry.

See me cry for, like, a very long time. The phone is the only way On can keep tabs on the outside world, and especially on what Trung is thinking. On has been waiting, hoping for his brother to step up, tell the truth, and get him out. So the second the cell doors unlock each day, he's first in line at one of the jail's wall-mounted phones, making collect calls to Trung. That's called a stress box. That's the name of that phone, the stress box. All their calls are recorded, so they're careful not to mention any specifics of the case. Instead, they've got a kind of shorthand.

Just basically saying, you know, like, when? Meaning, when are you going to tell everyone I didn't do this, Trung? And each time, Trung reassures his brother, I'm going to do the right thing. You just need to be patient. I'm not going to leave you in there. I got you. But until he actually makes good on these promises,

On keeps calling. And calling. It becomes a kind of compulsion. And after he hangs up, he always feels worse. Just like, oh, my brother, my brother, listen, Dad. Some days, he gets trung on the line and just goes off on him. Raising my voice. Like, dude, get me out of this fucking place.

And I just hung up on him, you know? Anything to wake Trung up. Just make it feel guilty that he's out there and I'm in here, you know? Because time kind of beats you down. So as On's 19th birthday turns into his 20th birthday, his outgoing calls to Trong shrink from several times a week to a couple times a month. And still, on each call, Trung is promising. I'm not going to leave you in there. I got you.

Ann isn't the only person frustrated with this status quo. Whenever on talks to his girlfriend, the conversation ends in tears. She just wanted me to be home with her, you know, fight for her love. She was there the night of the party. She knows that On is innocent, and she can't believe he still refuses to speak up. She's just like, dude, sometimes, you know, tron goes out, drunk goes somewhere, you know. And then she would blame me eventually. Trong is out there just living his life and you're letting him.

You're choosing him over me. Eventually, On received some news. His girlfriend has met someone. Finding out she's hanging out with another guy. My heart was breaking. Like, this is your fault, Trong, like straight up. Every time Onn comes back to the cell after one of these phone calls, Kevin is there to comfort him.

Watching his friend unravel, he's starting to grapple with how much of this might be his fault. If it weren't for him, maybe Onn't be here. I feel like a big part of his downfall was influenced by me, you know. That's why I have so much guilt. I feel in many ways that I manipulated on. He recalls this one time he bought on a new pair of Black Reeboks for his birthday. On was stoked, said it made him feel like part of the group. That's what pains Kevin now. That's how he wanted On to feel. He knew he could make On feel worthy and grateful. And he did so, even though he had complicated feelings about the lifestyle,

even though he'd been dragged into it without much choice. I was getting targeted at school and after school, before school, because of who my brother was. You might as well just kind of dedicate and commit yourself to this. Don't forget, we're part of this life. Kevin had been pulled in during middle school because several older family members were part of a long established Southeast Asian Street Gang. And then he'd gone on to start his own little group, the one he'd recruited on into.

But it wasn't until he was in jail that Kevin started to think more deeply about his life and his circumstances. My dad worked in a donor shop for like 30-something years, you know? He worked seven days a week, graveyard shift, and he always made sure we had food, clothes on our back, stuff like that. But once I got older to like maybe fifth, sixth grade, I knew, oh, okay, all right.

Not only are we on sectioning housing, we're in a neighborhood that's filled with crime, poverty, violence, gangs, everything you can think of. And you're bound to clash with each other, you know. At the time, that clash had felt inevitable. During his time in jail, Kevin started to understand this was so much bigger than him. It wasn't just about the economic instability or even the criminal activity he and on experienced.

It was also about the violence and trauma their pain. parents had endured, and how that seemed to influence so much of their behavior. I had some very tough, tough, tough conversations with my mom and my dad, where I had them opened up about their stories, not knowing that it was going to be filled with so much trauma. Like On's parents, who had fled the North Vietnamese communists, Kevin's family had survived the brutal, repressive regime of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Both sets of parents tried to suppress those experiences in order to, to survive.

But these traumas didn't just disappear. For kids like On and Kevin, they were in every lesson their parents taught them. In every rule they told them to obey, in every ounce of expectation placed on them to get everything they possibly could in America. It's an inheritance of sorts, a legacy that made it incredibly difficult for Kevin and On to understand

who they were meant to be here, a legacy that drove them to join groups in search of belonging. This is something that Kevin is only beginning to unpack, the parts of his past that can't be blamed on circumstance, but on his own choices. And in On, he's really starting to see the cost of those choices. Not just that On is sitting in jail, but that On seems to be like a shadow of himself. The kid Kevin first took a liking to was outgoing, funny, and confident, throwing up gang signs, even though he didn't know what they meant.

Now this kid is sad, lonely, and paranoid. And that's only what Kevin sees. It's even worse inside On's head. On feels like he never managed to be more than some gangster kid. That maybe the right twin was locked up. I always thought I was like the bad twin. When I was he was going to go down and I just felt like he was more talented. He had a job, and he was a leader in Boy Scout.

I thought he just had a better life going on for himself than me. On had never been given the benefit of the doubt, especially when standing beside his brother. Plus, what had he done to let people think otherwise? And on top of it all, isn't he also responsible in some way for what happened at the party? I mean, I blame all myself sometimes because, you know, knife that killed the victim was my knife.

His drunkenness, his aggression, his knife. If he actually came forward and told the truth about his innocence, who would even believe him? Trong holds a heavy envelope that has just arrived in the mail. It was fancy and said, Boy Scouts of America, I knew what it was. He breaks the seal and pulls out a thick shire. sheet of paper and a box. Like the holder of jewelry.

He opens it. Medals, their certificate. The metal itself is a silver-colored pendant of an eagle strung on a red, white, and blue ribbon, stamped with the motto, be prepared. He is officially an Eagle Scout.

Just feeling like a shock that goes to my legs, not a lot of people are able to go through all those years. meet all those requirements to get there. So I felt a sense of responsibility. And also I felt very American as well, like a bunch of our presidents, I became Eagle Scouts.

But as he looks down at the polished medal, the guilt hits trung hard. I can't go to the Eagle Scout ceremony. It's a big event. They call it the Eagle Scout nest, and the ceremony is them pretty much passing over the honor of their responsibility. Honor and responsibility.

This pendant shows Trong who he used to be and also reminds him exactly who he's become, someone who killed an innocent man and then abandoned his brother. After that day, I couldn't even look at it. I did that with the whole idea of scouting. Like I had placed it in a box somewhere like inside of me

and I didn't even think about it anymore. He just wants to be numb. So much alcohol, cocaine, cigarettes, sometimes popping pills. It was like I kind of convinced myself that all that didn't happen because I just didn't want to feel anything. Trung drops out of college,

and he toggles between all-night vendors and waking up in time for his server job. A lot of his old friends keep their distance. Between the charge of accessory to a homicide and the green light, he's not the safest guy to hang around. But he makes a new friend who we're going to call B. Skinny, tall guy, usually doesn't have a lot of money, but he's always willing to give everything.

He's someone that you don't feel like you need to be on guard with. In the warring houses of Tim and Bobby, B is like Mercutio, Romeo's best friend. This personality is very much like B very easygoing, always like having fun, always smiling, always blessing jokes. When Romeo is trying to be serious or in his feelings, he's able to lean on Mercutio to make things a little bit more lighter. That was the relationship that we shared.

B takes Trung under his wing, and it's refreshing, because for the first time, Trung has an older brother figure who asks absolutely nothing from him. There are no strings, no mind games, no problematic affiliations. And another similarity between B and Rukutio, Rukutio was uncommitted in the battle between the Montague's and the Capulis.

And so is B. He's not a gang member. He knew how much pain I was in from all sides, but would hang out like almost every night. He would kind of take me everywhere with him to his friends. One evening, after working a long shift at all of, of Garden. Trung pulls out his phone and calls B. What are you doing? B's at a Vietnamese bar and Trung is in. But he said, I don't think you should go. Bee notices some people from other gangs

are there, and after all the trouble Trung has been in, he probably shouldn't risk it. But Trung will do anything it takes to maintain that denial. Just wanted to get drunk, just wanted to party. So in his business casual work uniform. Dress shirt and Black slacks. He heads over to the bar and invites their friend Stephen to join. We meet up with a bunch of friends. A group of 10 or so.

They enter the bar. It's dark, but there's, you know, flashing lights like a red, blue, green, kind of like shrub lights. There are strippers. Come in for a handshake hug. We sit at a table. And trunks ready to let loose.

Hey, let's take a shot. We're all having a good time. drinking, probably doing cocaine. We're just trying to relax, you know, trying to catch up. Next thing I know, I felt like a really hard thing. Hit my head. A Heineken bottle this time. What the fuck?

We looked towards the door. I saw a bunch of people ran outside the door. The people that threw it. At that moment, we're like, okay, what the fuck is going on? Let's go get him. Stephen, B, and Trung chase after the guys who threw the bottle. B's in front.

I see B going around the corner, so I'm chasing after him. And then I hear gunshots and I see flashes. The whole gun being emptied, seeing the sparks that was coming out the barrel of the gun. I froze. I was like, oh, shit, I'm dead.

Anyone that comes around that corner is next. I saw the security on the ground. They've been hit in the lake. I started pushing, trying back, like get back inside. And then I was like, oh shit, B is still outside. Music in the bar shuts off and people scramble, trying to get the hell out of there. I put my head out. I just see B on the ground.

B was shot and he was bleeding. We were thinking of calling the ambulance, but the ambulance was going to take too long. They put B into Stephen's car and speed off. It was just a lot of yelling and getting him. us. Just go. Just like, just pass all those cars, just hung. Run that light, just go, go, go all the way back down to regional hospital, which is probably like 10 minutes away. They arrive and Carrie B inside together, yelling for help. Hospital staff roll him back on a gurney. Trung and Stephen are left in the waiting room.

Trung can't shake the thought that somehow this is all his fault. He told me not to go there that day. I went that day, knowing the potential things that would happen. And he stood right there, right in the middle, shielded me from everything with his body. They spend the night in the hospital, hoping for good news, but finally head home to wait. The next day, Trunk talks to B's mom.

She told me that he woke up. He was very weak. But right when he woke up, the first thing he asked if Trung was okay. The next day, Trung is at work when he gets a message from B's family. He's not going to make it. Trung rushes to the hospital,

and once he arrives, he's told that B has passed. Trong has no way of knowing if he was the target, but that's not the point. He feels responsible. He costs him everything, just because he cared for me.

That night, B kept trying to put himself in Trung's way, like the scene in Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo gets into an argument with Juliet's cousin, and Mercutio throws himself in between them. And instead of stabbing Romeo, the cousin stabs Mercutio. After what happened with B, I wasn't really sleeping. I was either drunk and when I'm tired, I'm using cocaine, right, going to work. I felt very disconnected from reality.

I was like, man, I need to talk to somebody. I need to talk to a counselor or something. Trung starts meeting with a therapist. I felt stuck. I felt just like a heavy feeling on my chest, and I just can't get rid of it. The weight of all the lives he's taken. The life of his friend,

the life of an innocent young man at a party. And in a way, his brother's life. Like, I'm carrying all that. I'm carrying, like, my brother being there. It was just like so much like guilt and shame. And over months of therapy, Trung learns there's only one way to lift that weight from his chest. To share the truth.

The warning on that Eagle Scout medal has come to fruition. Be prepared. Prepared to sacrifice his freedom. Prepared to take responsibility. Prepare to stop running from his fate. and take control of it. He calls his lawyer, takes a breath, and delivers some news. I've been hiding this crucial piece of information from you.

He tells his public defender that the wrong twin is facing the murder charge. I became honest, and I told him, and I was like, I need a homicide lawyer. Trung is skeptical the day he walks into the office of his new lawyer. He doesn't have a ton of confidence in public defenders. But then, Barney Berkowitz walks in. You know, big guy with a big suit with a very confident voice. He's the only murder client I've had in my career who was an eagle scout. So that tells you a little bit.

Almost instantly, Trunk thinks. Barney's different. He seemed very seasoned. I can tell right away that there was a reason he was assigned to my case. I felt like he was the right person. And Barney sees a kid he wants to fight for. I do anything to win because that's my job. I want to win.

I want to win the trial. I want to get the best deal possible. I want to get their case dismissed if I can because murder is so often situational. As Barney dives into the case files, he discovers something unusual. A pretty significant misstep with the investigation. The lineup. I mean, the whole thing is insane. It's insane that they did a line.

with identical twins. Because the eyewitness initially picked out Trong and then changed his mind. That's how they end up charging on, based on that witness in that lineup, distinguishing between the twins. That's a problem. When you have two identical twins involved in a chaotic, traumatic situation, any ID made by any witness who doesn't know them intimately is not going to be very reliable. It's not like the witnesses are, you know, family members who can distinguish them easily.

These are witnesses who, you know, I think most were vaguely familiar with them, especially if it's a stabbing that happens at a party at night, right? There are also regulations around how lineups are supposed to be conducted. And the way this lineup went, it was not kosher. If two people are involved, you aren't supposed to have both the suspects in the lineup. So that's another problem. If you violate rights or you violate due process or fundamental fairness, that evidence can sometimes be suppressed and not used in the prosecution.

Depending on Barney's approach, emphasizing the lineup could work for or against Trung. If this goes to trial, Barney could bring a motion to suppress the lineup, or he could make the details of the lineup violation public, which would look very bad for the deputy DA. Either way, he's feeling like they have the advantage. Right away, he's like telling me, if you want to take it all the way to trial, this is one of the cases that I feel very confident about.

But to Barney's surprise, Trung is hesitant. I told him like, nah, I can't take it to trial. It's not guaranteed enough that On will be released, and, like, we've got to find something better. Trong wants the best deal for him and, his brother. And that's the challenge that both of their lawyers are up against. By the time Barney takes Trung-on as a client, Attorney Clinton Morales has been working on On's case for more than a year. He's well aware of how problematic the lineup was. And for good reason, it put his client behind bars.

But he has a problem. From day one, On has been the most unhelpful client. Most days, Clinton feels like Ahn doesn't even want his help. It was kind of like a game of tug war, you know, trying to pull stuff out of him. Like, I'm trying to help you. Why aren't you helping yourself? Which feels more confounding to Clinton every time he sees On.

He just looked like a scared kid. It's difficult for Clinton to see the vulnerable-looking kid in front of him as capable of murder. But there's not much Clinton can work on until On opens up. Every time he asks, about the night in question.

On tells him. Like, oh no, somebody else, like somebody else had a knife. Omitting that somebody was trung. You know, that I don't know if I did it or not. I couldn't tell whether he was just trying to protect his brother or if he truly didn't remember. It drove me crazy. So Clinton just forges ahead on his own,

hoping that On will come around. He combs through the case searching for anything that could reveal what actually happened at the party. My investigator interviewed everyone that the police talked to. I think there was probably, I want to say, 25 people, hours and hours of interviews. There was like a big chart to where each person, you know, do they know Trung, do they know on?

If they do, could they tell them apart? How much did they have to drink? Were there any drugs? It was kind of a mess because this was a teenager party. He also wants to understand the fight. Who started it? Was it self-defense? Maybe this shouldn't have been a murder charge to begin with.

I reread everything on a weekly basis. Even if there wasn't new material, you're making sure that you've got everything. And through these interviews and his many reads, he becomes increasingly certain that On his innocent, especially the more he looks at the brother's now former girlfriends. This is the part that drove me crazy. The brothers' girlfriends both knew what happened. Both women were there.

Both witnessed the fight. They also both had reason to protect the brothers. But maybe now, since nearly two years had passed and the relationships had ended, the women might be willing to reveal what they know. Clinton tracks them down and convinces them to come in. It takes a few visits before one of the girlfriends finally opens up. It was the third interview that confirmed what I had thought.

That Trung was holding On's knife when he ran into the fray. The fact that Trung has upgraded to a homicide attorney tells Clinton, and by extension, On, that Trung is at least thinking of coming forward. But that's about all Ann and Clinton know. Barney is keeping everything close to the vest. And even though the lawyers are talking, the communication is frustratingly slow. Barney and Trung are dragging their feet, and Clinton is losing his patience. Every week and month that Barney takes is one more that On spends in jail.

I think I harassed his attorney dozens and dozens of times. Still, Clinton believes he now has enough evidence to convince the deputy DA that his client is innocent. The problem is that On doesn't want to do that. You know, you really want to go down for something that your brother, clearly did. My feeling was if Trung really cared about you the way you cared about him, he would have stepped up already.

So Clinton decides it's time for an ultimatum. Either Trung comes forward or on will. I looked at my friends. I looked at my family. I nodded. It was like a very, very bitter, sweet moment. That's next time on Blood Will Tell. Audible subscribers can listen to

over 200 podcasts ad-free, including hit shows like Dr. Death, business wars, and over-my-dead body. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. Blood Will Tell is a production of Wondury and Campside Media. This series is reported, written, and hosted by me, Jen Miller. For Campside Media, our senior producers are Lindsay Kilbride and Ashley Ann Crigbaum. Our producer is Annie Wynn. Our story editor is Ashley Ann Crigbaum. Sound design and mix by Ewen Lyetramyuan and Mark McAdam. Fact-checking by Tracy Lee. Consulting by Thomas Liu.

Translation by Tranvue. For Wondry, managing producer is Sarah Mathis. Leta Pindia is senior managing producer. Senior development editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Executive producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa Gregoriatis, Adam Hoff, and Matt Cher for Campside Media. Executive producers are Nigerie Eaton, Julia Lowry Henderson, Marshall Louis, and Jen Sargent for Wondery.