Commonwealth v. The Ngoc Tran

On April 28, 2011, Son Ngoc Tran was found dead in her home. The cause of her death was multiple blunt-impact injuries to her head and brain inflicted by a rubber-headed mallet. Dispatched to the scene to investigate, Lowell police officers discovered the victim in a pool of blood in her bathroom and her husband, the defendant, sobbing in the living room. As one officer approached, the defendant raised his hands and said, “I killed my wife.”

The defendant was charged with murder in the first degree and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon on a person sixty years of age or older.…