Killer pleads in vain for chance at parole in 40 years

Molly Ball

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

A man convicted of first-degree murder for shooting his ex-girlfriend outside a Las Vegas karaoke bar was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Tuesday.

Vannasone "Sonny" Ouanbengboune, 34, pleaded with the sentencing jury to give him a shot at parole in 40 years, the minimum.

"I hope you can find a place in your heart so I can have a chance when I am 74 years old ... to see my family," Ouanbengboune said, adding that he would try to improve himself in prison and work to understand his own motivations for the killing.

On Monday Ouanbengboune was convicted of murder and robbery for the Aug. 7, 2003, shooting of 38-year-old Raynna Bunyou. Witnesses said he argued with Bunyou outside the Bangkok Boom, near Valley View Boulevard and Desert Inn Road, then shot her multiple times and fled in her car.

At the sentencing hearing before District Judge Jackie Glass, Ouanbengboune's mother and sister testified to his difficult childhood as a Third World refugee and emigre.

When he was a child in the Southeast Asian country of Laos, his father, a policeman, was taken away by agents of the new Communist regime, leaving Somchai Ouanbengboune and her six children in extreme poverty.

When his father was released, the family fled, and Ouanbengboune spent several years in squalid refugee camps in Thailand and the Philippines before the family made it to Oregon, where they lived in public housing.

But prosecutor Chris Owens urged the jury to see Bunyou as the victim, not Ouanbengboune.

Owens opened his closing argument with a close reading of lines from Maya Angelou's poem "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," saying Bunyou was the caged bird of the title, restricted by Ouanbengboune's controlling nature.

Bunyou's singing was both figurative and literal, Owens said: she was a semi-professional singer of Thai karaoke, and her love for her family and community was like beautiful music.

"In this case, ladies and gentlemen, the caged bird sings for justice," Owens said.