Mistrial in Death of Envoy, Wife
A mistrial was declared today in the murder trial of Tran Van Khiem, charged with the slaying of his South Vietnamese diplomat parents.
District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Fred Ugast, “with great reluctance and great sorrow,” ruled Khiem is not mentally competent to stand trial and ordered him returned to St. Elizabeths mental hospital for 90 days. Khiem, 62, is charged with first-degree murder in the July, 1986, suffocation deaths of his father, Tran Van Chuong, 88, a former South Vietnamese ambassador to the United States, and mother, Nam Tran Van Chuong, 82, in their Washington home.
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