Anderson found guilty in murder of K&T owner

After four days of testimony, an Evangeline Parish jury of 12 found Samuel Anderson guilty of first degree murder and armed robbery.
In the State’s closing on Friday, assistant district attorney Kelly Tate retold the events that led to the shooting and killing of K&T Meat Market and Grocery owner Ann Nguyen at her Ville Platte Store on July 28, 2014.
Tate began her closing argument by yelling, “Boom,” before she said, “That was the last sound Ms. Ann Nguyen heard before she died.”
Anderson was accused of firing the shots that claimed the life of Nguyen while committing armed robbery of her store.
Nguyen had been in the process of selling the store so that she could move to California to be closer to her children and grandchildren, and the purchase agreement had already been signed.
In Tate’s closing she said, “Nguyen didn’t leave for California soon enough.”
Anderson became a suspect for these crimes after Louisiana State Trooper Willie Williams received a tip from a confidential informant which changed the direction of the police’s search for Nguyen’s murderer.
Originally, law enforcement officers were in search of a man with dreadlocks.
Anderson was located at the casino in Kinder during the early morning hours of July 29, 2014. He had gambled for a little while before preparing to board a bus headed to Houston where the defendant lived.
During the State’s closing Tate said, “Like Ms. Ann Nguyen, Anderson didn’t get away soon enough.”
The assistant district attorney then said, “That’s poetic justice.”
Tate then went through each piece of evidence to prove the State’s case.
She said, “We know he killed her because he confessed to the murder. We also know that the bullet that was recovered from Ms. Ann Nguyen’s head matches the gun that was found in Samuel Anderson’s backpack.”
Defense attorneys Alex Chapman and Greg Cook however argued that no one could definitively say that Anderson pulled the trigger of the murder weapon because the weapon had never been fingerprinted.
The State used Anderson’s confession to discredit the defense’s argument, though.
The State also used the fact that Anderson went into the store with a loaded gun to prove that the defendant had specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm, and it worked.
District Attorney Trent Brignac at the closing of the trial said, “This was Mrs. Kelly Tate’s first murder trial, and she did an excellent job.”
The D.A. then went on to “thank the whole D.A. staff for their hard work on the four jury trials” they have had in “the last three months.”
Brignac also thanked the jury, and complimented the work of Judge Chuck West.
Anderson’s sentencing is set for July 28, 2016, which marks the two year anniversary of the crime that ended Nguyen’s life.