Santa Ana Man Confesses to Slaying of Wife, In-Law : Violence: He tells police he became enraged by jealousy. But victims’ relatives are convinced that he planned to kill.

A Santa Ana man confessed to investigators that he fatally stabbed his estranged wife and her mother Wednesday and then set fire to a lawn mower inside their house, because he was enraged that a man had been giving his wife a ride to work, investigators said Thursday.

Tuan Ngoc Le, 32, had spent the July 4 weekend trying to rescue a marriage racked by violence when he learned about her car-pooler and went to her home to confront her, police and relatives said.

“He admitted to the incident,” Sgt. Randy Benicky said. “It was a domestic violence thing.”

Loi Thanh Phan, 30, and her mother, Sao Thi Nguyen, 69, were found stabbed to death in the home they shared with relatives.

A neighbor who ran to the house when he saw smoke coming from the windows about 9 a.m. discovered the bodies and a flaming lawn mower in the living room, he said. He also saw Le washing his hands and a knife in the kitchen, he said.

Le surrendered to deputies when they arrived.

He later told them that over the weekend he and his wife had discussed conditions for a reconciliation, including his getting a job, Benicky said.

But Le told detectives he became angry Tuesday night when he learned that she had been accepting a ride from a man rather than taking the bus to her job at an Anaheim electronics firm, Benicky said.

Phan reportedly ignored him when he confronted her at the home Wednesday. Le told police that he picked up a kitchen knife and stabbed her, then jabbed at his mother-in-law in self-defense when she jumped on his back, Benicky said.

Investigators recovered a knife with a six- to seven-inch serrated blade on the floor near the kitchen sink.

But relatives disputed Le’s contention that he had killed his wife out of jealousy.

“We don’t think it’s jealousy, and we don’t think he had a fit of insanity,” said Phan’s brother, Tam Phan, 39. “We think he’s been planning this. It makes me so mad every time I think of it.”

Le was aware that the man giving Phan a ride to work was a relative, he said.

Because Phan’s niece said she had seen Le walking to the house on her way to school at about 7 a.m., Phan and other relatives said they believe he had waited outside the house for the adults to leave for work.

“He told my daughter that he was just coming to get some paperwork because he had a new job,” said Tinh Dinh, who is married to another brother. “He knew our comings and goings because he had lived here, visited here so often. Then he must have done it as soon as he saw me leave to take my father to the eye doctor.”

Relatives said Thursday that Le had beaten Phan when they lived in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

“He was very hotheaded and wouldn’t listen to our pleas to stop hitting her,” Tam Phan said. “She was very timid and wouldn’t think of hitting back.”

But relatives saw a different portrait over the July 4 weekend. The couple took their 4-year-old daughter and the rest of the extended family to the beach at Corona del Mar and then to see the fireworks show at Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley. Le had accepted $200 from Phan to help pay his rent, they said.

“As a couple, they acted very well in front of us. Everything seemed fine between them this weekend,” Tam Phan said. “We figured that he couldn’t harm her anymore. . . . How were we to know that he hated her so much, he hated our family so much to do this to us?”

Loi Phan was the ninth of 10 siblings, most of whom had already emigrated to the United States from Ho Chi Minh City by the time she arrived with Le in September.

At the time of her death, she and her daughter were living at the Hearth Lane home with her elderly parents, two brothers and their families, and oldest sister Lien Thi Phan, who has been unable to hear or speak since childhood. Lien Phan, 46, suffered smoke inhalation and burns on her feet in the fire Wednesday.

Loi Phan was working for Copper Clad Multilayer Products, an Anaheim electronics firm, and Tam Phan speculated that Le’s pride was hurt when his wife found a job before he did.

Le “had a good job” in Ho Chi Minh City, Tam Phan said. “He was used to her being dependent on him. Maybe he didn’t like her freedom here.”

Tam Phan said his sister had never suffered more than bruises from Le’s beatings but had been threatened with worse.

“She told me that he said, ‘When I get to America, I’ll buy a gun and I’ll shoot you,’ ” Tam Phan said. “But we didn’t take him seriously.”

When family members returned to the house Wednesday, they found empty patches where carpets had been, black spots on floors and walls, blood stains on Phan’s bed and a cracked mirror closet door.

“Look at all of us living here because we can’t afford separate houses, and just think of how many people would be out of a place to live if he had burned the whole house down just because he wanted to get back at us,” Tam Phan said. “And he took two lives. He’s an animal, not a person.”

Le is scheduled to be arraigned today in Municipal Court in Fullerton.