Inset: Rena Nguyen (The Salt Lake Tribune). Background: Caleb Rees during his sentencing hearing after his manslaughter conviction in Nguyen’s suicide (KTVX).
A Utah man could spend two decades behind bars after he caused the death of his 20-year-old girlfriend when he berated her and left behind the gun she used to take her own life.
Caleb Rees, 31, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, two gun-related charges and one drug charge in the death of Rena Nguyen in Orem. He was sentenced on Friday to up to five years on each charge, meaning he could spend up to 20 years in prison.
Nguyen, a biology student at Brigham Young University, had been dating Rees for about 10 months until her death on Oct. 1, 2021. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, prosecutors did not charge Rees with manslaughter until three years later when a private investigator hired by Nguyen’s family uncovered recordings on her phone from the night of her suicide.
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The recordings reportedly captured Rees confronting her about her suicidal thoughts. He became enraged when he believed she called police to express her concerns.
“When I say get the f— off the phone with the police, I mean get the f— off the phone,” he said, per the Tribune.
In fact, it was a friend who called police to ask officers to perform a welfare check on her. But Rees continued to berate her, calling her dumb and stupid, and saying she should be sent to a “mental institution.”
Nguyen begged Rees to “stop, please!” Those were her last words. Rees took out a gun and placed it on a table in front of Nguyen and walked out of the room. Moments later, she pulled the trigger.
Judge Sean M. Petersen laid into Rees, calling the recording “nothing short of horrific.”
“The repeated threats, demeaning statements, and the ridicule, Mr. Rees, that you heaped upon Rena is just unnerving. To treat someone this way, whom you had a close relationship with, gives me a lot of pause about your future relationships and the safety of the public,” he said, according to a courtroom report from local ABC affiliate KTVX.
Nguyen hoped to one day become a radiologist, her mother Rose Nguyen told the court.
“We stand before you today carrying a pain no parent should ever endure,” she said. “We are Keith and Rose Nguyen, and our daughter Rena Nguyen should still be alive. Rena should be building her future; instead, we are here to speak for Rena.”
Added the victim’s father: “No parent should ever have to bury their child, especially under such cruelty.”
The Nguyen family sued the Orem police for negligence, alleging the department did not do enough to address her previous complaints against Rees. But that lawsuit was dismissed, which led to the family hiring the private investigator who found the damning recordings, the Tribune reported.
Rees apologized to the Nguyen family, saying he could have handled “things differently.”
“I know I will never be able to feel the pain that the Nguyen family has gone through, but I want them to know that every day since Rena’s death has been extremely difficult, and not just the last two years I’ve been incarcerated, but every day leading up to then and after,” he told the judge.
The post ‘Stop, please!’: College student’s boyfriend called her stupid, told her she needed to be in ‘mental institution’ before she died by suicide with his gun first appeared on Law & Crime.
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