2014-06-07 Double Murder

June 7, 2014 Double homicide in Eastridge

On June 7, 2014, around midnight, Amarillo police responded to a 911 call from 1216 Jasmine Street in Eastridge.

The caller was a 15-year-old girl who lived at the home. She told 911 that she had heard gunshots.

Staying on the phone with the dispatcher, the girl reported hearing her mother's voice and an unknown Asian male's voice shouting over one another. The girl said that she heard her mother say "please, no" and then more gunshots.

A short time later, the girl walked out of her room and found her mother, 45-year old Phonsavanh Noy Phetsavanh, in the living room. The woman was critically injured from several gunshot wounds.

When police arrived, they also found the body of Phetsavanh's husband, 52-year old Phetkeo Phetkeo, dead in the back yard.

Phetsavahn was transported to a local hospital, where she later died.

At the scene of the shooting officers began to investigate. The intruder was determined to have made entry on the property by climbing the fence from the alley into the back yard. Officers also located a cigarette butt, and multiple shell casings, footprints, and tire tracks in the alley.

Police were able to identify Nga Lone Aung, 38, as a suspect based on communications made with the female victim on Facebook.

The messages on Facebook showed that there was a relationship between Phetsavanh and Aung. There was a photo on Aung's profile that showed him standing in front of a car with a visible license plate. Using the shown license plate, they were able to learn his name and address.

Aung flees the city

The investigation into Aung led officers to contact his roommate, Kyaw Kyaw.

Kyaw told police that after the murders, Aung called him to tell him what he had done and that he was not returning to the apartment as he had fled the city.

Kyaw and Aung shared the monthly rent of the apartment, with Kyaw paying in cash and Aung by check. The apartment itself was a small one bedroom without a partition or lock. APD Sergeant Jason Riddlespurger later testified that the room “had two small beds and two closets that appeared kind of like a dorm room where a closet belongs to a particular bed”

Taking the fact that Aung had told his roommate that he did not intend to return, thus effectively abandoning his property and giving Kyaw the full authority over the apartment, Riddlespurger asked Kyaw for consent to search.

The only evidence Officer Riddlespurger retrieved from the apartment, however, was a suitcase containing an empty handgun case and two fired cartridge casings.^[1]

Nevertheless, Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit coordinator Lt. Erick Bohannon told media that two murder warrants had been issued for Aung.^[2]

June 18, 2014 Aung's arrest in Liberal, Kansas

Amarillo police continued to search for Aung. Through analyzing Aung's cell phone "pings", they were able to trace him as he fled to Buffalo, New York first, and then pinpointed his location in Liberal, Kansas. Deciding to make their move, investigators then alerted Liberal police.

On June 18, Liberal Police Department captain Patrick McClurg said that Aung was arrested during a traffic stop in the city.^[3]

Because Aung was an immigrant from the Rakhine region of Myanmar (Burma) and spoke Rakhine, a language similar to Burmese but distinctly different, officers retained the services of an interpreter before traveling to Liberal to interview him.

Aung gave police a statement, but because he was not given the proper constitutional warnings, it was only allowed to be used in the later trial to impeach Aung as a witness.

Believing they had obtained consent from Aung during the interview, police then searched his car. The search produced: a spent 9 mm round on the floor and a package of Marlboro cigarettes that were consistent with the cigarette butt found at the murder scene.^[4]

September 15, 2014 Aung indicted for capital murder

Aung was brought back from Liberal, Kansas and booked into Potter County Jail on two counts of murder. His bond was set at $1,000,000.

A grand jury indicted him on September 15, 2014.