Daniel Jones, 31, of Ashland, Oregon, is charged with murder in the shooting deaths of his father, Oberlin College photography professor Pipo Nguyen-Duy, and his stepmother, Tran Thi Phong, inside their Oberlin, Ohio, home on Wednesday, October 28.
Nguyen-Duy, 64, was found on the first floor of the house on South Pleasant Street and Phong, 56, on the second floor, according to News 5 Cleveland and ABC News. Oberlin police said "both victims suffered from multiple gunshot wounds," ABC reported. Some outlets, including CBS News, have written her name as Thi Tran Phong. Jones is charged with six counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and one count of tampering with evidence. He has not entered a plea and is presumed innocent.
How the morning unfolded
The case began with a car fire. At about 8:57 a.m., officers went to the Oberlin College Conservatory parking lot to help firefighters with a smoking vehicle, News 5 reported. The car was registered to Jones.
At about 10:19 a.m., police found him on Shipherd Circle after a resident called about a wet, disheveled man at her door. According to the city prosecutor, Jones had asked the woman to record a video of him for the internet and said he did not want police involved. In that video, the prosecutor said, he identified himself as Asia Nguyen-Duy and said he was escaping a cult and taking full responsibility. A neighbor walking his dog, Greg Poirson, told News 5 the man asked him for a ride to the library and said "all I want to do is escape this cult." Poirson refused and called police.
When officers spoke to him, Jones allegedly said he had killed his family and gave them his father's address, ABC reported. At about 10:28 a.m., officers went to the house and found the two victims. The college briefly told students and staff to shelter in place, then lifted the order once police said there was no danger to the public.
In court on Thursday
Jones was carried into Oberlin Municipal Court for his first appearance on Thursday because he refused to walk in, News 5 reported. Prosecutor Zachary Simonoff told Judge Farah L. Emeka that Jones had cuts to his face and injuries to his hand and arm, and that the gun has not been found, according to ABC. A belt bag Jones was reportedly wearing has not been found either, News 5 reported.
Simonoff also said police had reached Jones's mother in Oregon, who told them her son is psychotic and needs medication, ABC reported. That account came from the prosecutor in open court. No motive has been announced.
Simonoff asked for $1.5 million bond, and defense attorney Jenifer Berki Merril agreed to that figure, ABC reported. Judge Emeka set it at $3 million instead, "given the egregious nature of the charges." Jones waived his preliminary hearing, and the case was bound over to the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas, where a grand jury will decide whether to indict.
What the charges actually say
Six murder counts for two deaths can look like a typo. It is not. Ohio's murder statute, Revised Code 2903.02, gives prosecutors two main routes. Division (A) says "No person shall purposely cause the death of another." Division (B) covers a death caused "as a proximate result" of committing a violent first or second degree felony, such as felonious assault. Charging documents commonly list more than one theory for each death so a case does not rise or fall on a single one. The divisions behind each of Jones's six counts have not been reported.
The arithmetic is simple. Six counts across two victims works out to three for each, and the four felonious assault counts would fit the same pattern of two for each victim, though that breakdown is our inference rather than a reported fact. Under Ohio's allied offenses statute, Revised Code 2941.25, when the same conduct supports several "allied offenses of similar import," prosecutors may charge them all but a defendant can be convicted of only one. If Jones were convicted, the counts for each victim would likely merge at sentencing.
Our analysis: the timeline in minutes
8:57 a.m.: Officers respond to the car fire at the conservatory lot.
10:19 a.m.: Police locate Jones on Shipherd Circle, 82 minutes later.
10:28 a.m.: Officers reach the South Pleasant Street house, nine minutes after that.
About 91 minutes passed between the fire call and the discovery of the victims, consistent with ABC's report that the fire came about 90 minutes before the bodies were found. That gap will matter. Prosecutors are likely to argue the burning car and the missing gun and bag point to an effort to destroy evidence, which is the basis of the tampering count.
The question of his mind
The prosecutor's account of what Jones's mother said will draw attention to his mental health, but a diagnosis is not a defense on its own. Ohio defines not guilty by reason of insanity in Revised Code 2901.01 as a person who "did not know, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, the wrongfulness of the person's acts." Competency to stand trial is a separate question about the defendant's state of mind now. We explained both in How Does the Insanity Defense Work, and How Often Does It Actually Succeed?, and a Cincinnati jury applied the Ohio standard just last week in Jury Rejects Insanity Defense, Convicts Rodney Hinton Jr. in Deputy's Death. Nothing in the record yet shows Jones's lawyers intend to raise either issue.
Who Pipo Nguyen-Duy was
Nguyen-Duy came to the United States from Vietnam as a political refugee in 1975 and taught studio art and photography at Oberlin from 1998, according to the college. He was an internationally exhibited artist and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011, CBS reported. This fall he was teaching introductory black and white photography. "Pipo was beloved," Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar wrote. "During his years at Oberlin, he touched all of us through his passion for photography."
For how a judge sets a figure like $3 million, see How Bail Works, and What Happens at the Hearing That Decides Who Stays in Jail.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
