Friday, September 4, 2009

Jury says man competent for trial in wife's killing

Friday, Sep. 04, 2009
By Pablo Lopez
The Fresno Bee

A 69-year-old Fresno man who police say has confessed to killing his wife in October is legally competent to stand trial, a Fresno County Superior Court jury has ruled.
Pech Sok is an uneducated Cambodian refugee who knows little English and has lived a miserable life, lawyers told jurors this week during Sok's competency hearing. He was tortured in Cambodia and his first wife died there, the lawyers said.
He hasn't fared much better in Fresno. In August 1998, Sok's second wife, Eng Ath, and two of the couple's children, Sophan and Sopheap, drowned in the San Joaquin River while fishing.
Now, Sok is charged with killing his third wife, Bouen Say, 61, who was stabbed to death at the couple's home in the 400 block of South Woodrow Avenue on Oct. 1. After the attack, police said, Sok cut himself with a knife.

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