FORT SMITH — The state’s evidence is insufficient to prove that Kevyphonh Sounyaphong strangled Sakounsouk Vilayhong last year, Sounyaphong’s attorney told a Sebastian County Circuit Court jury Monday.
Sounyaphong, 60, went on trial before a jury of nine women and three men Monday, charged with first-degree murder in Vilayhong’s death. The trial, presided by Circuit Judge J. Michael Fitzhugh, is to last three days.
Deputy prosecutor Aaron Jennen told jurors in his opening statement Monday that Vilayhong, 50, was found strangled in her home on the afternoon of Jan. 24, 2013, and that the wallet from her purse, which contained hercash, credit cards and checkbook, was missing.
Investigators recovered a hair from Vilayhong’s jacket that the state Crime Laboratory matched to Sounyaphong, Jennen said.
He also said cellphone records showed that Sounyaphong was in the vicinity of Vilayhong’s home at 2101 Kelley Highway around the time of her death.
Sounyaphong’s attorney, William O. James Jr. of Little Rock, told jurors that that evidence did not prove his client killed Vilayhong.
He said Vilayhong and Sounyaphong worked in the same department at Fort Smith’s Rheem plant and that the hair could have been deposited on the jacket at any time.
Vilayhong’s daughter Tina Vilayhong, who lived with her parents, testified that her mother wore an outfit only once before washing it and that she did the laundry every weekend.
James also said the phone records showed only that Sounyaphong’s phone signal was picked up by a cell tower in the area of Vilayhong’s home but didn’t place him at the home. He told jurors that Sounyaphong drives through the area on his way home.
No one saw Sounyaphong at the home, and police never found any of his fingerprints at the home, James said.
The state “has nothing at all but a prosecutor’s story,” he said.
According to police, Vilayhong and Sounyaphong both skipped work on Jan. 24, 2013, and went to the Choctaw Casino just over the state line in Pocola, Okla.
They were not at the casino together but may have seen one another there, James said.
Police investigators believed Vilayhong was at the casino from 8:30 a.m. to 1:50 p.m. on Jan. 24, 2013.
Sounyaphong initially told police detectives investigating Vilayhong’s death that he was not at the casino that day but later changed his story and admitted he was at the casino.
James said Monday thatSounyaphong lied to detectives because that interview took place in his boss’s office at work, and he did not want his employer to know he had taken off from work to go to a casino.
Vilayhong’s husband, Samdy, testified Monday that he returned home from work that day about 3:45 p.m. and found his wife lying facedown on the living room floor. Testifying through an interpreter, the native of Laos said he initially thought his wife was asleep on the floor but realized she was dead when he saw the blue shade of her face and that she was not breathing.
He said he noticed stripes on her neck that first responders from the Fort Smith Fire Department and Tina Vilayhong also noticed.
The Arkansas medical examiner’s office ruled that Vilayhong was strangled from behind by hand and ligature.
Fort Smith EMS paramedic Amanda Johnson testified that when she arrived at the Vilayhong home about 4 p.m., she found that rigor mortis had begun to set in on Vilayhong’s jaw, eyes and arms.
Samdy Vilayhong said the family was acquainted with Sounyaphong. They lived next door to each other when the Vilayhongs lived at 3610 Oak St. several years ago and that Sounyaphong visited the Vilayhong home to drink beer and eat as recently as 2012.
Testimony resumes at 8:30 a.m. today.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/15/2014