74-year-old faces life in prison for stabbing doctor

PASADENA — A 74-year-old man could be sentenced to life in prison for stabbing a cardiologist several times in November 2006 at his Glendale office, court officials said Monday.

Jurors deliberated for less than a day to decide that Mike Du Trieu was sane during the attack, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

With the sanity issue settled, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge will sentence Trieu on July 30, according to the district attorney’s office. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The same jury on Friday convicted him of attempted murder of Mohamed Latif of Heartbeat Cardiovascular Medical Group in Glendale, officials said. The attack permanently paralyzed him, according to the district attorney’s office.

Trieu had been Latif’s patient for more than a decade before attacking him in his office, authorities said.

The jury agreed with prosecutors who alleged he pulled out a pocketknife during a routine doctor’s visit and stabbed Latif in the back, left shoulder and face.

Trieu claimed Latif killed his mother in 1994 and attacked him in retaliation, according to the district attorney’s office.