US court finds Vietnamese American woman guilty of murder, arson

A judge in Kansas City, Missouri, agreed with the prosecution’s charge that Nguyen Thu Hong, 46, she had deliberately set fire to her own nail salon.

The ensuing blaze took the lives of 43-year-old Larry Leggio and 39-year-old John Mesh and seriously injured two others.

Hong can be punished by up to 30 years in jail for her offense, the Kansas City Star reported on Monday. Sentencing has been set for September 14.

Prosecutors argued that Hong had intentionally lit the fire by pouring flammable liquids into a storeroom in her salon on October 12, 2015. The two firefighters who died were among 100 people sent to the three-storied building to put out the blaze.

They died after a wall of the burning building collapsed.

Prosecutors said Hong had a previous record of burning a nail salon she operated for the purpose of receiving insurance money.