Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Horrific': Mom Admits to Murdering Sons While They Slept in Their Beds, Trying to Kill Nephew

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

This week, Pennsylvania mother Trinh Nguyen was sentenced to life in prison for shooting her two young sons to death as they slept in their beds — and then trying to kill her husband's nephew. The boys, Jeffrey Tini and Nelson Tini, died in May 2022. The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy talks with Bucks County First Assistant District Attorney Jen Schorn about the disturbing crime in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily true crime show.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A 40-year-old mom who was supposed to love and protect her two sweet sons is going to prison for the rest of her life for shooting the boys in the head as they slept in their beds. Trinh Nguyen also admitted to trying to kill her nephew. How could she deny it? A camera caught the entire thing. The DA is here to talk about the disturbing case.

I'm Anjanette Levy. It's Friday, and this is Crime Fix. This case is absolutely beyond the pale. It's one of those where, as a mom especially, I can't wrap my head around it at all. Trinh Nguyen admitted this week to shooting her two sons in the head as they were laying in their beds, killing them. Jeffrey Tini was just 13. His younger brother Nelson Tini was nine. The boys were in their beds on May 2nd,

2022, when Nguyen shot them with a.38 caliber revolver. You can see those sweet little boys in photos that were shown in court this week. The DA says Wynn was angry with her ex-husband and wanted him to pay, and this was her twisted way of doing that. Then she went to the home of her husband's nephew, Gianni Melchionato, and tried to kill him. That was recorded by a doorbell camera. But thank goodness, the gun did not fire properly. The DA is going to tell you why here in a little bit.

And Melchionato was able to disarm Wynn. She drove to New Jersey and tried to overdose on narcotics. A judge in Bucks County, Pennsylvania sentenced her to two consecutive life sentences this week, so she will never, ever, ever get out of prison. Joining me to discuss this awful, horrific, and I cannot emphasize enough horrific case is Jen Shorn. She is the first assistant district attorney in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and really she's going to be the DA here soon. So congratulations on that, Jen, and welcome to Crime Fix. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Tell me if you would, this case is heartbreaking. These little boys were killed by their mother. She has now confessed to it, pleaded guilty. She'll be spending the rest of her life in prison. Tell me a little bit about the case and how it unfolded. Yeah, simply horrific.

The defendant, Trinuen, decided that she wanted to take her son's lives, we believe in large part to make her ex-husband pay. And so while they were sleeping in their beds, she shot her 13-year-old son, Jeffrey, and her nine-year-old son, Jeffrey, and her nine-year-old son, Nelson. Following that, she attempted to murder her 19-year-old nephew, Gianni, as he was loading his car to go to work that day. Due to a mistake on her part, the gun did not fire properly and he was able to disarm her. And it wasn't until after the police responded to his attempt at murder that they discovered the horrific scene inside the residence with the two little boys dying in their beds. And she had actually written this will out. It's my understanding from reading

the materials, describing what she wanted to happen. And, you know, she had grievances, it sounds like. She was blaming everybody in the world for her issues except for herself. Yeah, absolutely. It was, we almost, we characterize it as like a manifesto. In the weeks leading up to Nelson and Jeffrey's death, their mother, the defendant, planned everything out systematically and blamed, you know, her ex-husband. Any personality trait that she took issue with with her one son, she said she feared he was going to turn out to be like his father, which was completely just senseless and ridiculous. And she said her other son was too naive and good for this world. So she wanted to take his life to spare him pain. She blamed the owner of the home, who was her

ex-sister-in-law, for evicting her. She made it seem like she was facing poverty when, in fact, she was pretty comfortable financially following the divorce, in fact, quite comfortable. So it just, and she blamed, you know, the judge that presided over the eviction, just wanted to create this false narrative to justify the most horrendous crime. Quite frankly, one of the worst I've ever seen. I mean, those poor boys. I can't even imagine what the family is going through. Were the boys asleep when this happened or had they been falling asleep?

I mean, can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, we believe, we can't say precisely the exact time that they were shot in their beds, but it was in the early morning hours. We believe she waited in the home for quite some time, waiting to pursue her third target, her nephew, while they were dying in their beds. Probably the most heartbreaking is that her nine-year-old son, Nelson, had some level of awareness, consciousness, I should say. When police and his aunt discovered him, you know, he was banging his head, indicating obviously the pain he was suffering from the gunshot wound. It was horrific, simply horrific. And law enforcement was outstanding

in that within a few hours, they apprehended this defendant and overwhelming evidence to prove her guilt. I mean, thank goodness for the nephew that the gun did malfunction or she didn't do it right or what have you. And there's video that exists. She was captured kind of trying to shoot at him. Trying to shoot at him. And she made a fatal mistake in that after shooting her two sons, she removed the spent casings from the revolver. And call it hand to God fate. It allowed that when she pulled the trigger to shoot her nephew,

it landed on an empty chamber once, empty chamber twice. That third trigger pull would have been a fatal shot to her nephew. But that hesitation between trigger pull two and the start of trigger pull three allowed him to intervene and disarm her. And then she still tried to convince him the gun was not loaded. We know for a fact had Gianni not acted, he would have suffered a fatal gunshot wound. And one only knows who else she would have killed before taking her own life or attempting to take her own life. You know, this is definitely not a case where it's a whodunit. So as part of her guilty plea,

was she required to sit down with detectives or sit down with you and her attorney and explain why she did this or how she arranged it, everything like that, you know, allocute or give a formal, you know, police statement, you know, saying, yeah, this is why I did it. This is how I did it, all of that stuff. You know, we actually didn't need that from her because the investigation was so thorough and so complete and the evidence was overwhelming. Ultimately, the decision, I mean, she's going to serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole and it's consecutive to a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Consecutive to that is the statutory maximum for attempted murder. We had a tough decision to make because it was certified as a capital case, given the age of the victims and the fact that there were multiple victims. And we discussed with the family what

their wishes were. And we felt this was the best outcome, spare everybody from the heartache of a trial. But we didn't have to. And she chose not to allocute. But we did not have to sit down and proffer with her because we had such strong evidence and we knew justice was on our side. Did she offer any type of statement of remorse or love for her children? I mean, I don't know how you do something like this and then actually feel remorse. I don't get it you do something like this and then actually feel remorse. I don't get it. I'm a mom.

I don't understand how people do things like this. But did she offer any type of anything? No, not at all. Truly, one of the most difficult proceedings I've ever, I've been prosecuting for 24 years. And the proceeding yesterday was just so heavy. I mean, the victims, family members that spoke were so eloquent and beautiful in expressing to the judge the impact, the loss of the boys and the attempted loss of our third victim, Gianni, how that weighed on them. And it was heartbreaking, but she offered nothing. She offered nothing.

As a prosecutor, you know, you get to know the victims in the case. You get to know things about the people who died, the ultimate victims here. What can you tell us about Jeffrey and Nelson? What can you tell us about these boys? I mean, Nelson, for starters, I mean, his love for baseball was evident. And I know his father really appreciates the baseball community, the families and loved ones from that community that supported him following this. And, you know, I think one of the most powerful pictures we presented during Victim Impact was, you know, Forever in Our Hearts. And they had Nelson's number and of the athletes, all the students wore that on their uniforms. And then Jeffrey was a very talented swimmer. And by all accounts, everybody said he was the most lovely kid. Didn't have a mean bone in his body. Just the school community, their athletic community and just the community in general, the outpouring of grief was pretty tremendous to see. So yeah, pretty special kids, it seems. And yeah, as a parent, you think of all the milestones and especially this time of year at the holidays, you know, what kids should be

thinking about and, you know, school break and the holidays and gifts and, you know, time with family. And it's just, you know, compounds the devastation. Certainly. Were Jeffrey and Nelson, their father's only children? So Nelson was the biological son of this defendant's ex-husband, second ex-husband. And Jeffrey was his stepson and the biological son of her first husband. And they had a third brother who thankfully did not live in the home, was living on the West Coast and in school at the time. But you can only imagine his grief, losing his two brothers. Yeah, most certainly. Well, it's, um, this is a heartbreaking thing to happen any time of the year. It doesn't matter if it's Christmas, but this is going to be even more difficult, uh,

moving into the holidays without those boys. And sadly, this is what we can offer as society is this is the accountability that can be offered. And we can just hope that those boys are resting in peace. Is there anything you'd like to add, Jen? Are there any final thoughts? Just, you know, like I said, the family is remarkable. You know, you just saw the ripple effect of, you know, the grief layer upon layer upon layer through family members, the community is just heartbreaking, but they showed such strength and dignity coming to court. And for

those that could offer to impact statements and just pretty remarkable. And then just commending law enforcement again, like you said, we can offer justice. We can't diminish the pain, but at least we were able to get justice for Nelson and Jeffrey and their third cousin who survived the attempt. Most definitely. Thank you, Jen Shorn, soon to be Bucks County District Attorney for your time. Thanks for joining us and we hope that you have a good holiday. Thank you. I appreciate it. Same to you as well. And that's it for Crime Fix on this Friday, December 22nd, 2023. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thank you so much for being with us. We're going to see you back here on Monday, Christmas Day with a special episode. Merry Christmas. Have a great weekend. Have fun with your families and we will see you back here on Monday.