// a href = ./ //

A jury has recommended life in prison for the 20-year-old St Louis man  who was convicted for his part in the death of Vietnamese man during a 2011 knockout game attack.

20-year-old  Elex Murphy has been found guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action for the attack on 72-year-old Hoang Hguyen and his 59-year-old wife.

The morning attack happened last April in the 3800 block of S. Spring. Police said the Nguyens were attacked as they walked home after shopping at a nearby grocery market.

The victims were punched and kicked repeatedly by a group of young adults.    The elderly man fell to the ground after being beaten and suffered a severe head injury. He died at a local hospital a short time later.

The teens ran when a car approached.

Days later, Elex Murphy was arrested and charged. No other teens have been arrested.

 

It's day two in the trial of a 20-year-old man accused of killing an elderly Vietnamese man in the so-called "knockout game."

Prosecutors say Elex Murphy was one of four teenagers who randomly attacked 72-year-old Hoang Nguyen in April of 2011.

According to police, Nguyen was walking home from a grocery store with his wife in broad daylight near Spring and Chippewa, when then 18-year-old Murphy and the group of teens attacked the couple. Police say Murphy punched Nguyen in the head and then punched his wife in the eye. Nguyen later died at St. Louis University Hospital.

In the "knockout game" people are chosen at random and beaten, with the attacks often captured on cell phone video. 

Murphy wept silently in court yesterday as Nguyen's widow described the deadly attack.

A teenager shot and killed last week while allegedly trying to break into a south city home is the same teen charged in a "knockout game" attack that made headlines.

Fifteen year old Demetrius Murphy had been charged in the 2011 attack on Matt Quain, the man Mayor Francis Slay and his body guard had found bleeding at the curb along South Grand.

Murphy had been charged in the attack, but those charges were dropped after a young witness refused to testify in that case.

Quain spoke with Fox 2 News Monday night after learning about Murphy's death. "You know, I'm not happy that somebody died," Quain said. But he did say he wished the violence would end. "I wish there was more that people could do to put an end to it."

Murphy's alleged burglary accomplice, 17 year old Michael Bryant is facing murder charges in the 15 year old's death. The homeowner is not expected to be charged.