A 43-year-old Vietnamese Singapore permanent resident, Nguyen Ngoc Giau, is on trial for allegedly murdering her landlord who became her boyfriend, 51-year-old jewelry assembler Cho Wang Keung, at Block 562 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3.
The High Court heard on April 8, 2025 that their relationship began as tenant-landlord in July 2020, turned romantic by October 2020, and ended with a fatal stabbing on July 15, 2021.
Nguyen has denied the murder charge.
Nguyen initially rented a room in Cho’s three-room flat and slept in the living room before sharing a bedroom with him. Another tenant, Tan Cheng Mun, who knew Cho through the jewelry industry, occupied a separate bedroom.
The prosecution stated Cho wanted to break up with Nguyen and remove her from the flat. On July 14, 2021, Nguyen called Cho over 30 times after he blocked her number.
She reportedly drank about 10 cans of beer that day and sharpened a kitchen knife.
When Cho and Tan returned to the flat after midnight on July 15, 2021, Nguyen confronted them in the common corridor. Court video showed Nguyen asking Cho in Mandarin where he had been drinking.
As the situation worsened, Cho asked Tan to call police. Nguyen then got the knife she had sharpened and attacked Cho.
When she saw Tan taking photos of the assault, she reportedly turned toward him, but he ran down the stairs.
After stabbing Cho multiple times in the neck, chest, and back, Nguyen stabbed herself several times in the stomach.
Police found both Cho and Nguyen covered in blood in the common corridor. Body-worn camera footage showed Cho telling a police officer that Nguyen had stabbed him.
Cho was pronounced dead around 7:15am at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
According to Tan’s testimony, Nguyen began suspecting in August 2020 that Cho was seeing other women, which led to frequent arguments.
Tan testified that on the night of the attack, he and Cho were drinking at a Bishan coffee shop where Cho mentioned trying to end his relationship with Nguyen, who had demanded a $5,000 “break-up fee.”
During cross-examination by Nguyen’s assigned lawyer Favian Kang, Tan revealed that Cho was married to another Vietnamese woman with whom he had a daughter.
The wife moved out in June 2020 after numerous arguments that sometimes required police intervention.
Tan confirmed that Cho and Nguyen often quarreled, with arguments sometimes turning into physical fights.
He acknowledged that two to three months before the fatal attack, both Cho and Nguyen were arrested for fighting at the void deck.
Defense lawyer Kang played CCTV footage from July 12, 2021, showing Nguyen giving Cho a kiss while his friends were at the flat.
Kang also questioned Tan about footage captured minutes before the stabbing, where Tan could be heard calling the police and using a Cantonese vulgarity to describe Nguyen.
Nguyen was heard shouting “I love you” to Cho and telling Tan that the flat was not his home.
When Kang suggested that Tan was contributing to the couple’s dispute, Tan replied: “Yes, a bit.”
A psychiatric report indicated that Nguyen had an alcohol use disorder and was likely in a state of acute alcohol intoxication during the incident.
If convicted of murder, Nguyen faces life imprisonment or the death penalty. The trial continues.
