Relatives said the punishment does not match what they call a lasting loss.
HYBLA VALLEY, Va. — The man convicted of shooting his girlfriend during a late-night ride in his SUV was sentenced Friday to 23 years in prison, closing a case that began with a frantic drive to a Mount Vernon area hospital and ended with relatives of the victim calling the punishment too light.
The victim, Alison “Kate” LaPorta, was 38 and had two children, relatives said. Police and prosecutors said her boyfriend, Huy Tien Nguyen, shot her inside a vehicle after an argument, then tried to explain the wound away with shifting stories. The sentencing came after a September jury found Nguyen guilty of second-degree murder and a firearms offense. The judge’s decision set the prison term but did not end the family’s public fight to describe who LaPorta was and what her death has meant to them.
On the night of April 17, 2024, police said Nguyen drove LaPorta to Inova Mount Vernon Hospital, arriving at about 11:35 p.m. at the facility on Parker Lane in Hybla Valley. Officers were called for a shooting victim and found LaPorta suffering from a gunshot wound to her upper body, police said. She was later transferred to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where she died. As officers began asking questions, police said Nguyen first told them the shooting happened in a parking lot, a claim detectives said they later disproved as they gathered evidence from the vehicle and tracked the couple’s movements.
Detectives concluded the shot was fired inside the vehicle, police said, and investigators later located a firearm near Nguyen’s home in Lorton. The case quickly became a domestic-related fatal shooting investigation, with police charging Nguyen with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Prosecutors later said that in the minutes after arriving at the hospital Nguyen offered different versions of events, first suggesting LaPorta was hit by stray or random gunfire outside a nightlife spot and later claiming she shot herself during a dispute. A video clip shown in court and described by local outlets captured Nguyen speaking with police as the investigation began, prosecutors said.
At trial, prosecutors relied on physical evidence and testimony they said did not match Nguyen’s explanations. They argued the bullet’s path and other details were consistent with a gun being fired inside the vehicle while Nguyen and LaPorta were together. Witnesses also described an argument earlier in the night and recounted statements prosecutors said sounded like threats. The defense, however, argued the case did not prove Nguyen pulled the trigger beyond a reasonable doubt. Defense lawyers pointed to LaPorta’s mental health history and maintained she could have died by suicide, an argument that remained the core of Nguyen’s strategy through conviction and sentencing.
The jury rejected that account in September, convicting Nguyen of second-degree murder and the firearms charge. Under Virginia law, second-degree murder can carry a sentence that reaches decades, and the firearms conviction adds additional prison time. In the weeks leading up to the sentencing hearing, prosecutors and relatives urged the judge to impose the maximum possible sentence, arguing that LaPorta’s children and parents would live with the consequences forever and that Nguyen’s changing stories showed an effort to escape responsibility.
When the judge announced a 23-year sentence on Friday, LaPorta’s family said they felt stunned and let down. Her daughter, Katlin Lasky, said the punishment did not reflect the seriousness of the crime. “I think he should have gotten the full 40 and plus some,” she said after the hearing. Lasky described how the loss has disrupted sleep and routine and has left a constant sense of absence in her family. “The death of my mother has impacted me so badly, I just don’t get sleep at night,” she said. “I mean, we lost what was equivalent of everything.”
LaPorta’s father, Tim Pounsberry, said the number of years felt disconnected from the pain that followed the killing. In an interview after court, he described the impact on their family as “absolute destruction” and said he could not reconcile the sentence with his understanding of the crime. “Murdered my daughter,” he said. “I mean, ask yourself. He got 23 years. Something, it’s just not enough.” Family members said they came to court hoping for the maximum punishment not only for retribution but also for a sense of safety and finality.
The case’s timeline helped shape those emotions. Police said LaPorta was wounded late at night, driven to the hospital by the man who would later be charged, and then became the center of an investigation that hinged on truthfulness in the first hours. Investigators said Nguyen’s initial claim about a parking lot did not hold up and that the evidence led them back to the vehicle. The later discovery of the firearm near his residence added to the prosecutors’ narrative that Nguyen was attempting to control what police learned. From the start, detectives treated the case as a fatal domestic shooting, a category that often leaves families searching for warning signs and answers that may never fully come.
For relatives, the legal process also forced them to revisit LaPorta’s final hours repeatedly. They heard arguments about where she was shot, why she was in the vehicle, and what was said during the argument earlier that night. They also heard the defense raise private medical history in an attempt to explain the shooting as self-inflicted. Even after the guilty verdict, the sentencing hearing required the family to speak about LaPorta in formal statements, describing her as a mother and daughter and explaining how her death changed the lives of her children.
Lasky said she worries about her younger brother, who was 10 when their mother was killed, and about how he will carry the trauma into adulthood. She said she keeps reminders close, including clothing that belonged to her mother and a matching tattoo, to make sure LaPorta remains present in daily life. She said the court’s sentence may close the criminal phase of the case, but it does not close the grief. Her family’s focus now, she said, is on protecting memories and helping the children build a future that still includes their mother’s story.
The sentence also raised questions about what comes next in the legal process. Nguyen has the right to appeal his convictions, a step that can move through the courts over many months. Appeals can challenge rulings made during trial, the way evidence was admitted, or the instructions a jury received. The state, meanwhile, treats the case as resolved at the trial level with a conviction and sentencing order in place. Unless an appellate court overturns the verdict, Nguyen will serve the prison term imposed Friday, with release dependent on how credits and other rules apply inside the corrections system.
For now, LaPorta’s relatives said the most immediate next step is not a court date but the daily work of living without her. They said they want the case remembered not for the arguments in court but for the person at the center of it. As they left the courthouse, they spoke about birthdays, school events, and milestones that LaPorta will not attend. They also said they fear time will soften public attention while their loss remains sharp.
Author note: Last updated February 15, 2026.