See Update No. 2 at the end of this post about the wife suffering “a break from reality,” according to her attorney.
See Update No. 1 on the next page about the prosecutor claiming in his opening that the wife yelled “You deserve it!” before slicing off her husband's penis with a 10-inch kitchen knife.
ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 16, 4:29 P.M.: A woman faces trial Wednesday for torturing her husband by allegedly dosing his dinner, leading him to bed to lie down, tying him to the bed and cutting off his penis.
This is all said to have stemmed from an argument Catherine Kieu Becker, 50, had with her 60-year-old husband over a friend staying in their Garden Grove home at a later date.
]
Opening statements are expected to begin Wednesday in Santa Ana, according to an Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) statement, which notes Kieu is charged
with one felony count of torture, one felony count of aggravated mayhem and a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a knife that, with a conviction, could get her life in state prison with the possibility of parole. Despite having supposedly confessed to going all Lorena Bobbitt, Kieu pleaded not guilty at her arraignment.
The couple apparently argued the night of July 11, 2011, when Kieu is accused of preparing a tofu dinner that, unbeknownst to her husband, was laced with Ambien. Feeling tired, he went to bed around 9 p.m., and while he was out Kieu allegedly tied his legs and arms to the four corners of the bed with nylon ropes.
OC Weekly Catherine Kieu Becker archives
The man awoke to find his pants pulled down and Kieu grabbing his penis and severing it with a knife. She is then accused of tossing the bloody dick into the garbage disposal, turning the device on and mutilating the organ, according to the OCDA.
Kieu is said to have then called 9-1-1 to report her husband was bleeding. He got on the line with police to say what his wife is now alleged to have done. He later underwent emergency surgery at UCI Medical Center in Orange.
UPDATE NO. 1, APRIL 17, 3:16 P.M.: “You deserve it!”
That's what Catherine Kieu Becker yelled before slicing off her 60-year-old husband's penis with a 10-inch kitchen knife, Orange County Deputy District Attorney John Christl claimed in his opening statements today.
The prosecutor added he knows that what the wife said before performing an act every wife has probably dreamed of at least once because of a voice-activated recorder in the bedroom where her drugged-up husband's arms and legs were tied to the four corners of the bed.
Deputy Public Defender Frank Bittar countered in his opening that Kieu's severely traumatic childhood in war-torn Vietnam, including being raped by her older brother, caused a mental illness that feeds into an insanity defense.
UPDATE NO. 2, APRIL 26, 8 A.M.: Catherine Kieu Becker suffered “a break from reality” when she slashed off the penis of her husband and should be convicted of a charge less serious than torture, her attorney argued Thursday in closing arguments.
But the prosecutor in the Santa Ana courtroom countered that Kieu took multiple steps to plan her attack and was therefore in a state of mind that warrants the torture count.
The case is now in the hands of the jury, whose deliberations are scheduled to resume Monday in Superior Court in Santa Ana.
Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.