We finally have a plea bargain

State v. Donta Allen. Our beloved Linda Trịnh's justice is coming. It has been one year, eight months and 22 days since Linda was taken from us. The wait has been long enough. Today at 10:08 in the AM, the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for some served time from the prosecutor's life imprisonment term.

BALTIMORE - A man who killed a Johns Hopkins University student during a burglary last year pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder in a plea deal giving him a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

Donta M. Allen, 28, admitted in court to killing Linda Trinh, 21, in her apartment near the university's Homewood campus in Baltimore in January 2005. The crime shook the prestigious university, which was already hurting from the murder of another student nine months earlier.

Some of Trinh's family members cried and hugged outside the courtroom after Allen pleaded guilty instead of going forward with a trial, which had been scheduled to begin Tuesday.[...]

Warren Brown, Allen's attorney, said he encouraged Allen to accept the plea deal, because he believed his client "would have been found guilty easily" and would have "died in jail."

Allen gave an incriminating statement to police, saying he intended to burglarize Trinh's apartment while she wasn't home. When he found her in the apartment, the two got into an argument, which became violent when she tried to call police. He also told police he had burglarized the apartment once before.

Police had DNA evidence linking Allen to the crime because his genetic profile was detected under Trinh's fingernails.[...]

Trinh was found in the apartment on the afternoon of Jan. 23 after police responded to a suspicious death call. She was face-down and partially clothed in her bathtub with about two inches of water and a cell phone. She had been asphyxiated by strangulation, and she had contusions on her neck and bruises on her arms and legs from blunt force.[...]

[Prosecutor] Fraling initially planned to seek a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. He declined to comment on the case. Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 8.

I sat at the very last row in the back, holding back my tears. Tears of joy that the case is settled by a plea bargain rather than by a jury trial. I don't think I can handle a lengthy court process or have to testify in a jury trial. The visuals and photos will just rip me apart. There will probably be continuances. The elements of offenses are overwhelming against the defendant. I won't go into details, but this voluntary manslaughter is beyond my comprehension for a motive. Whatever Donta Allen decides, I am counting on the prosecution to prove Allen's unlawful entry, his mental state and the circumstances to the judge in bench trial.

I find that life in prison sentence is a much lesser alternative punishment than the death penalty. In Vietnam, life imprisonment means that the prisoner spend his life in prison. After 30 years, he may be granted amnesty. I am all numb, and there's no reaction in me. Whenever I look into Linda's parents' eyes, I see a deep sadness and also a startling strength to forgive. I could never find the strength to forgive. I would be just too wicked depressed. I look forward to the sentencing hearing on January 8. If the Honorable Judge Brown permits, I'd like to give a family/friend statement to Donta Allen. It won't be easy for me, but it must be said. There's never really a closure. We can only hope that Mr. Allen will show some remorse.