MOBILE, Ala. — A man was convicted Thursday of murdering four children he threw from an 80-foot-high bridge on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, a crime prosecutors described as a horrific “death ride” for youngsters who thought they were in caring hands.
Lam Luong, 38, who emigrated from Vietnam at 14, presented no defense witnesses at his trial this week in Mobile.
A jury needed just 40 minutes to convict him of five counts of capital murder, one for each child and one extra because the case involves multiple victims. Capital murder is Alabama’s only charge that carries a potential death sentence.
Jurors are scheduled to return today to recommend either death or life without parole, though the judge is not required to abide by their recommendation.
Prosecutors told jurors Luong committed an “unimaginable crime” by casting the four children — ages 4 months to 3 years — from the highest point of the Dauphin Island bridge on Jan. 7, 2008, after an argument with his common-law wife, Kieu Phan. Three of the children were his with Phan, 23, and the fourth was his wife’s with another man.
Assistant District Attorney Jo Beth Murphree, who led the prosecution, told jurors in closing arguments Thursday that the children “did not know they were on a death ride that morning. They trusted him. . . . The father has betrayed his children.”
A tearful Phan declined to comment after the verdict as she left the courthouse escorted by relatives.
Defense attorney Greg Hughes said Luong, a part-time shrimper, was intoxicated when he went to the bridge after a night of smoking crack cocaine and drinking alcohol. Hughes urged the jury to return a reduced charge of manslaughter before they began deliberations shortly before noon Thursday.
