True Crime Chronicles: Home invasion in Hartman in 2013 during an attempted kinapping resulted in child murder
Kou
Her entered the Xiong family home near Hartman in rural Johnson County in the early hours of May 10, 2013, climbing through a window that opened onto a child’s playroom with a bucket placed outside for access.
The 21-year-old, who had lived with the household for months after his own family moved to Arkansas from Philadelphia and who continued to visit afterward to use their computer, carried scissors, a kitchen knife, and other items. Inside,
14-year-old Linda Xiong slept beside her 6-year-old niece, Autumn Vang. Her’s stated plan, according to his own trial testimony, was to abduct the older girl and offer her as a virgin to a Philadelphia drug dealer he called Stitch in settlement of a $6,000 methamphetamine debt from years earlier.
Autumn was stabbed in the head while she slept. Linda woke to the sensation of a rag soaked with gasoline and chloroform pressed over her face. When she struggled, family members were drawn by the noise. Alex Xiong, Linda’s brother, entered the bedroom and was stabbed. Jee Xiong, the household’s adult male, was also cut.
The relatives, though wounded, overpowered Her and held him until Johnson County sheriff’s deputies arrived around 3:45 a.m. Deputies found the open window, blood, scissors, gloves, duct tape, and the chemical-soaked towel. Her tried to flee the scene and was subdued with a Taser.
His vehicle, parked nearby, contained black trash bags draped over the seats, a backpack holding more duct tape, a knife, hand cleaner, a bag of jellied fluid, isopropyl alcohol, additional gloves, paper towels, a camera, electrical tape, and nylon rope. Fingerprints from a bag matched Her’s, and blood from the victims was later identified on clothing he wore at the time of arrest.
Autumn Vang was taken first to a local hospital and then to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, where she died on May 16 from the penetrating brain injury. Linda sustained injuries from the attempted suffocation and struggle. Alex and Jee Xiong required treatment for their wounds.
The family, described in contemporary reporting as a close-knit Laotian household living together on County Road 2243, told investigators and local media that Her had never shown signs of violence and that the attack was unexpected. Relatives who spoke publicly called Autumn a smart, pretty child known in the community.
Initial charges included attempted murder, attempted kidnapping, residential burglary, and battery. After Autumn’s death, prosecutors upgraded the case. In Johnson County Circuit Court, a jury heard three days of testimony beginning December 10, 2013.
Over his attorney’s objection, Her took the stand and admitted the planned kidnapping to satisfy the drug debt but claimed an accomplice named Stitch had entered the house with him, retrieved a knife from the kitchen, and inflicted the fatal stabbing before fleeing.
Prosecutors confronted the account with the absence of any other intruder observed by the family, the physical evidence recovered from Her’s car and person, and the fact that the knife did not match the kitchen theory. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder, aggravated residential burglary, criminal attempt (kidnapping), first-degree battery, and aggravated assault.
On December 12, 2013, he received two consecutive life sentences plus 30 years, 15 years, and 2 years.
The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the convictions in 2015 after reviewing the record and a no-merit brief from counsel, finding no reversible error and noting that Her’s own testimony amounted to a confession of the core offenses.
Later pro se petitions, including a 2021 request to reinvest jurisdiction for a writ of error coram nobis alleging narcotics influence, incompetence, ineffective counsel, and a rescinded plea offer, were denied as non-cognizable.
Her remains housed housed in the East Arkansas Regional Unit, and remains under a life sentence with no release eligibility indicated per his double-life conviction.
