By Matt Campbell
The Kansas City Star
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bond will remain at $2 million cash for the woman charged with arson and murder in the deaths of two Kansas City firefighters battling an Oct. 12 blaze on Independence Boulevard, a judge ruled Friday.
Thu Hong Nguyen’s attorney had sought a bond reduction to $100,000 and asked that Nguyen be allowed to post 10 percent of that amount.
Jackson County Associate Circuit Judge Jalilah Otto denied that request.
“I just don’t want it to get lost on the parties that this is a double homicide case,” Otto said in making her ruling.
Nguyen, 43, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree arson and two counts of second-degree murder.
Nguyen followed the proceedings with the help of an interpreter but did not speak during the hearing Friday. Her 24-year-old son, Cuong Nguyen, testified on her behalf but was not able to offer any information about the Independence Boulevard fire.
Kansas City Fire Chief Paul Berardi testified on behalf of the department and the families of fallen firefighters Larry Leggio and John Mesh. He asked the court not to lower Nguyen’s bond.
Berardi said the property damage from the fire was more than $2 million. Twenty-six apartment dwellers and five businesses were displaced. Other businesses were affected.
Berardi said 18 firefighters were in the burning building when an evacuation order was given just minutes before a wall collapse killed Leggio and Mesh and seriously injured two others. He said the department could have lost 18 firefighters.
Before the collapse, firefighters rescued two residents from the upper floors of the building.
The alleged arson, Berardi said, demonstrated “a total disregard for human life.”
Nguyen is accused of setting the fire in a store room in a nail salon she owned on the ground floor of the building in the 2800 block of Independence Boulevard. Court documents say Nguyen was the last person to leave the salon the night of the fire.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker contends Nguyen’s motive was greed for insurance proceeds.
Court documents also associate Nguyen, 43, with two previous fires and said she told investigators she had received insurance money from those fires. But her attorney, Bill Shull, has said she did not receive any insurance money.
One of those fires occurred in July 2013 at a nail salon at 410 S.W. Ward Road in Lee’s Summit where Nguyen worked.
Cuong Nguyen testified that he owned that salon and that he received more than $51,000 in insurance payment for damages from the fire. He said his mother did not receive any of the money.
Under questioning from Chief Deputy Prosecutor Page Bellamy, Cuong Nguyen said he had purchased the business at age 22 for about $30,000 that he had earned previously by doing odd jobs.
Cuong Nguyen said the fire was electrical and he denied that it started at his mother’s work station. He said work stations were used interchangeably by employees.
Cuong Nguyen acknowledged a fire occurred at a home his mother once rented from a relative but said he knew nothing about any insurance payouts in that case.
Court documents also note that a fire occurred in January of this year in a vacant apartment directly above Hong Nguyen’s nail salon on Independence Boulevard. That fire was ruled an arson.
A Farmer’s Insurance Co. agent in Olathe in 2011 filed a suspected insurance fraud report against Hong Nguyen.
Court documents say Hong Nguyen told investigators that on the day of the October fire she went to a nail supply store and purchased four bottles of acetone and four bottles of isopropyl alcohol, both of which are flammable liquids.
If convicted of any of the charges, Hong Nguyen could face life imprisonment. Her next court appearance will be an arraignment on Jan. 25.
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