Khoua Her

Case record: Khoua Her

Status and sentence

Khoua Her pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 50 years in prison with no possibility of parole for more than 33 years on December 2, 1998.

The offence

Khoua Her, 24, strangled her six children, ages 5 to 11, in Minnesota.

The children were found throughout the house after police responded to a 911 call made by Her. Police said the children were strangled.

Investigation

Police had been called to Her’s home many times in the period before the killings in response to domestic violence calls. Social workers had not noticed any apparent danger to the children.

After police responded to the 911 call, officers found an extension cord wrapped around Her’s neck. The children were found with black material around their necks, in separate rooms across different floor levels.

Police collected items from the scene, including three pieces of mail addressed to Her, including a letter from "Ying Yang, AKA Tiger;" a torn-up note; five pieces of cut telephone cord; two “suspicious” bloodstains on a basement doorway; a sword and a case; eight pieces of a torn photo; and a Medical Assistance application in which someone had listed the children’s names and then crossed them out. Detectives also confiscated seven drinking glasses that were sent to the crime lab.

Police and medical personnel said the children had been strangled. There was discussion in reporting about whether toxicology might show drug traces; the initial toxicology report on the Hang children showed no drug traces, but the medical examiner stated the office was not ruling out possibilities.

Authorities said there was waiting for toxicology test results on the bodies that could determine whether the kids had been fed poison before being strangled. Police also said they were looking for Her’s boyfriend, though he was not identified as a suspect.

Arrest and custody

Police officers and paramedics rushed to Her’s apartment after the 911 call. Her was transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

Police officers arrived while the 911 operator was still on the line. Officers Sheila Hoff and Joseph Chaffee arrived at the townhouse where the call originated and found Her lying near the steps with a brown extension cord around her neck and a portable phone in her hand, wearing a “red ceremonial dress.” Officers reported that 6-year-old A-ee was lying face-down on the floor with a piece of black material tied tightly around her neck. Police discovered additional bodies upstairs and in the basement, including 11-year-old Koua Eai and two sons in separate rooms. The last victim to be found was 5-year-old Tang Kee, who was found on the floor in the bathroom with a black strip around her neck.

Officers described that each child was in a separate room on each floor level, away from the others, and another detail about different stages of rigor suggested the killings occurred at different times.

A crowd began to gather as Her’s condition stabilized, and an ambulance transported her to Regions Hospital.

Trial and proceedings (plea and pretrial matters)

After the killings, Khoua Her faced six counts of second-degree intentional murder. Her court-appointed attorney was Bruce Wenger, and prosecutor Chris Wilton was the assistant Ramsey County Attorney.

Before the guilty plea, Wenger entered not guilty pleas on her behalf on six counts of second-degree murder. Her had pleaded not guilty at an earlier appearance on November 13.

A psychiatric evaluation found Her competent to stand trial, and Her was arraigned on six counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of her children, ages 5 to 11.

Wenger argued for a change of venue, and the request was granted. Oral arguments were scheduled for December 15.

Wenger said he was still considering a mental-illness defense and said his decision would rest in part on a still-secret psychiatric evaluation of Her prepared while she was held at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter.

Wenger also said that he had never received a tape of the 911 call and had downloaded the transcript, and he raised issues about whether the voice on the tape belonged to Her and whether Her had said, “I don’t know why I killed my kids.”

During a later plea hearing, Her tearfully told the courtroom that she had been suicidal and worried about what the children would do without her. She told the packed courtroom through an interpreter: “I strangled their necks,” and she also said: “If I died, then nobody would love my children.”

On the 911 call, a woman identified as Her admitted: “I killed the kids. I don’t know why I killed the kids.” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Chris Wilton said Her’s sentence meted out justice for the taking of those six lives.

Sentencing

During a 45-minute hearing, Her pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 50 years in prison with no possibility of parole for more than 33 years.

Her attorney Bruce Wenger said Her chose to accept a 50-year sentence with no possibility of parole for more than 33 years rather than risk a life sentence, which would have been handed down if a jury had found her guilty.

Wenger said: “She is 24 now, and she will be done with her sentence at the age of 57 and theoretically have a life beyond this,” and: “If we went for first degree murder and she were convicted, she never would have been free.”

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Chris Wilton said the 50-year sentence was “very just” and that “There is no amount of time or money that can somehow equal not only one child's life but six childs' lives.”

Outcome

Khoua Her pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 50 years in prison with no possibility of parole for more than 33 years on December 2, 1998.

Other details

Children

Police identified the dead children as:

• Kouaeai Hang, 11
• Samson Hang, 9
• Nali Hang, 9
• Tang Lung Hang, 7
• Aee Hang, 6
• Tang Ke Hang, 5

Police also described that the bodies of the children were found in different stages of rigor and that the children were found in separate rooms across floor levels.

Domestic violence calls and social service involvement

Police said they had been called to the apartment at least 15 times in the last 18 months for domestic turbulence. Social workers and advocates later said culturally appropriate services might have helped Her before it was too late.

911 call statements and transcript claims

Her’s attorney said the press mistakenly assumed Her confessed to police through the 911 call. Wenger said: “We're a long way from any kind of confession,” and: “What newspapers are showing here is that she has confessed, which is clearly wrong,” and: “She has not been interviewed by the police, she has not been mirandized, she has not made a statement and she has not confessed to anything.”

Wenger also said: “The only thing police are basing any information on is one 911 call, a 911 call where there is no proof as to who made this call,” and he said: “I still don't know who made that 911 call,” and: “I don't know if there were language problems. I know Khoua speaks some English but I know she doesn't speak English fluently... If she did make a call it could be misinterpreted to what she was saying.”

Wenger said, “I saw the transcript of the call, and I understand it was a conversation that was difficult for the 911 operator to understand, and [Her] does not speak English very well,” and: “The transcript was an interpretation of what the person thought they heard on the tape ... We don't know what was said.”

Quoted statements by court officials and advocates

Chief William Finney said: “We see this across cultures. It doesn't matter what culture you're from, American or otherwise.”

Mayor Norm Coleman said: “We're all shaken, the community is shaken.”

William Yang said: “This is a really tragic event, not only for Minnesota but for the United States,” and he said: “Khoua does not fully understand what's going on,” and: “Somebody in the family did speak to her briefly, and she said she is puzzled by the situation.”

William Yang also said the group was trying to set up a Hmong crisis hot line.

Lee Pao Xiong said: “If we have trained people in non-profit organizations, they may have caught it,” and: “I don't know if she was assigned to a Hmong social worker ... but if that person were Hmong, she might have mentioned that her life was not worth living anymore.”

William Yang said: “I believe if she spoke to somebody and talked to someone on this issue, I don't think this would have happened,” and Executive Director of the Lao Family Community of Stockton Pheng Lo said: “Without a person that really is from her culture, you cannot help her,” and: “You can have a policeman there, a social worker, but lots of times it doesn't help her because they are dealing with those procedures from what they learn, but it isn't really from her own culture.”

Phoua said: “She lived in total isolation,” and: “Divorce is tough on the women,” and: “No one wants to befriend you. Most husbands won't let their wives associate with divorced women, because they view them as bad; they're afraid they'll influence their wives.”

Gaoly Yang said: “Our tradition indicates that you should be married for life,” and: “And once you go out of the norm, you are ostracized by the majority. People will look down on you, no matter how hard the marriage was.”

Mental-health professional True Thao said: “When we left Laos, we escaped bombs, bullets, grenades and chemical weapons. But our simple, isolated lifestyle in the mountains of Laos did little to prepare us for the challenges of a modern industrialized society.”