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Mobile County Sheriff's Office
Vern Phdsamay, 32, a Laotian immigrant, is accused of beating the head monk of Wat Buddharaksa Temple in St. Elmo, Ala., to death.
ST. ELMO, Ala. — Vern Phdsamay, a Buddhist monk, sits quietly not in his temple along Alabama's Gulf Coast but in a Mobile County jail cell. He's charged with murder, accused of having beaten the temple's chief monk to death last month before calmly washing up and eating dinner.
Once again, the peace at Wat Buddharaksa Temple has been shattered.
In 2008, a fire that was ruled an accident destroyed the temple. It took two years to rebuild.
In 2010, the BP oil spill devastated the economy of the local Laotian and Thai communities served by the temple.
Now it is without its spiritual leader of a dozen years. Prosecutors say Chaiwat Moleechate, 45 — the head monk, who led the work to rebuild the temple — was bludgeoned to death during an argument May 11.
Phdsamay, 32, was quickly arrested and charged with murder. At his bond hearing last month, Assistant District Attorney Jo Beth Murphree said Phdsamay smashed Moleechate on the head at least 12 times with a foot-long wooden pestle. Then, "He went back to his living quarters, showered and washed his clothes, and he went back and ate," she said.
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Phdsamay (pronounced PIT-suh-my) was bound over to a grand jury Monday. Penniless because he has sworn a vow of poverty, his lawyer says, he remains in Mobile County Metro Jail on $50,000 bond.
It's not clear exactly when Phdsamay, who speaks no English, joined Wat Buddharaksa. Authorities say he is a legal resident of the U.S., having immigrated from Laos and settled in the area in 2005.
What is clear is that for at least the last three months, Phdsamay had been troubled. He stopped talking and refused to join his fellow monks for meals, and Moleechate (pronounced MOLE-uh-shayt) had been trying to help him, temple members said.
A doctor was brought in to see Phdsamay, but he refused to take any medicine, temple members said. That was when Moleechate began making plans to send him off the grounds for treatment, said Bouasanouuong, a member of the temple's governing committee who, as is customary in some Thai communities, uses one name.
For some time, she said, it seemed that Phdsamay had been "kind of a little bit mental." But no one thought he might be capable of murder.
On May 11, a Friday, Phdsamay and Moleechate had an argument, and at some point Phdsamay's meal was thrown away, prosecutors said. Witnesses said Phdsamay began beating Moleechate with a long stick, later identified as the foot-long wooden pestle.
Chaiwat ended up dead, and Phdsamay — whose jailhouse booking photo shows him with long, red scratch on his neck — ended up in custody on murder charges.
Neil Handley, Phdsamay's attorney, said his client claimed that he got the scratch defending himself from Chaiwat, who he said "came at him" first.
That doesn't square with how temple members remember Reverend Chaiwat, as he was known.
Moleechate was "a very kind person," temple member Steve Chatahuane said. "He helped everyone that needs help."
"Sometimes I ask myself, do good people always go first?" Chatahuane said. "He was one of the good people that I knew."
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Leave a Comment:
I lived in Mobile for a few years and had no idea there was a temple there.
Shows how observant I am, I suppose.
BP was involved in an oil spill in 2006, all right - in Prudhoe Bay, AK!!!
...and that has WHAT to do with this article, SaintofCircumstance? Keep on topic, you OCD polititard!
The gulf oil spill has nothing to do with the murder. Just remember who writes this junk. They have an agenda.
There is a hidden anger in a lot of the Asian people. I was driving last week and this Korean pulls right out in front of me. He didnt even look. I slam on my brakes to avoid hitting his car. Thankfully, no one rear ends me. I pull up next to him and honk my horn, one little honk, to get his attention. He turns and lays into me with a screaming unknown to common man. I was amazed. Why? I had not said one single word to him. I had honked, one, yes one - LITTLE honk. As I drove home I thought about the Asian people. This guy was older, silver hair, so maybe he thought he "knew better" than me. Why should a "child" question him, although I have some gray hair myself. This is one of countless examples I can think of where an Asian (Japan, China, Korea, whatever) goes postal due to some perceived "slight" of their ancestral hierarchy. I am sorry. We are in the USA, not Thailand or whereever. You may have a lot of people who worship you in Asia, but not here my wonderful Asian people. I have had Asian women push right past me in the shopping line. Evidently, they are "more" important than I. If I question them, they act like they do not understand, but then they carry on with wonderful English as they checkout. It is an amazing "I am better than you" attitude.
This "temple" may have suffered for the same reason. Maybe the one who did the killing felt slighted or maybe felt the head monk was not paying him enough respect. It seems to fly in the face of how people treat each other in such temples, but it goes to show that not all Asians are peaceful, as I have found out too well.
Why do you refer to "the Asian people"? It sounds ridiculous. And from that comment I find it very hard to believe you would be able to determine this man was in fact Korean rather than of some other Asian culture, as it sounds like you pretty much lump them all into one category.
RWING kinda says it all. "The Asian people", really. Anything like "the American people" or "those folks from Arkansas" or "the damned leftist tree-huggers?" You exhibit a severe case of bigotry.
Or the diagnosis could be indellible stereotying syndrome (IDS). In either case its not usually curable. Sorry.
I'm not a doctor but i DID stay at a holiday inn express last night...I believe RWINGS true diagnosis is "Anal/Cranial Inversion Syndrome" popularly known as "Head In Ass Disease"
If only the head monk found true peace and happiness with a 1911 he would still be here.
WWBD?
.45 ACP
People who suffer from 'mental illness' need treatment: depending on the severity of their symptoms they need medication & someone to 'remind' them to take it properly, they might need hospitalization, they might need counseling etc. etc. Treatment of mental illness is costly, time consuming and best left in the hands of professionals. I feel sorry a good human being lost his life trying to help someone and I feel sorry for people who are mentally ill-Everyone Suffers..............
Oh then I guess we as a society failed this murder. My god, we should be the ones on trial.
@RWING
The Asian people have no corner on anger, arrogance, or any of the other human failings that dismay and disappoint us. All this "proves" is that even Buddhist monks are human, despite their beliefs and best efforts at self-improvement.
I'm sorry you have had bad experiences with others, but if you look around, you will see that these issues exist all over the world. The danger is in trying categorize a people, a race, a nationality, a religion or a philosophy, especially in a bad context; this leads to anger and resentment, which will eat at you inside like termites devouring a house. Don't do that to yourself.
Viktor Frankyl, survivor of the Nazi death camps, remarked that we cannot change what fate hands us; but we are free to choose our response to what fate hands us. This is, in fact, our one and only freedom, for it cannot be revoked by any power, physical, mental, or spiritual. If you work on becoming patient and tolerant of others, you will come to appreciate the ones that test you most, because those are the ones that strengthen your character.
Ah, but what if one demands tolerance and acceptance of themselves yet they refuse to be following their own rules? Wouldn't that be enforcing a dobule standard, let alone approving hypocritical behavior, cygnus61?
I lived in Mobile, Al. there is a mixed asian community. Chinese, Vietnam, Thai, Loas, Japanese, and different areas of world. The young man have a Mental issue and the chief Monk tried to help him. This is a sad and tragedy on any race.
What did he do wrong in the first place to be demoted to being the head monk.
No speakie Engrish... Lived here 7 years - legal resident. Thank you 1965 immigration reform act that shifted legal immigration from Europeans to Asians and Africans who don't want to assimilate.
For those haters out there who will castigate me for being non-PC - ever wonder why we have cra( printed in 73 different languages and are hospitals are required by law to have translators available for the hordes who have been coming in since '65?. Wonder who pays for all that stuff... maybe that is a facet of why health care costs are so darn high.
When my ancestors immigrated in the late 1800 and early 1900's there was no education in Italian, free health care and we all learned English ASAP and assimilated into what was called the great melting pot.
But now - new immigrants demand FREE services to them in the language of their old country and WE have to bow down to them.
Farking insane.
We allow over 1 million legal immigrants a year in an anemic economy.
We need an immigration time-out of a generation or so to allow those here to assimilate. We don't need more 3rd world people to compete with American's for jobs.
STOP ALL IMMIGRATION NOW!
Just goes to show you how we've bastardized every concept handed down.When we realized freedom of religion meant bringing in all this crap we should've shut the doors on this country.Hell, it should've been done after ww2.Now we have this crap where? Timbuktu? No,ala.how absurd.The America of the west,the one that saved the world 2x last century is being overrun.Is it sad to say the decline of white culture spells doom for the world? Pansys
The plural of pansy is pansies. How well educated and you are trying to set the tone for America's discourse. You should probably keep your bigoted thoughts to yourself. They make you sound like a non-English speaking immigrant and self loathing is bad for your mental condition.
I see.So a misspelling = bad.FY.Not self-loathing.Again fy
Pained: "Now we have this crap here"........and what 'crap' are you speaking of? Intolerance? Hatred? Fear? Yes-all the 'crap' that human beings have in their hearts. "The decline of the white culture ????"And what exactly is 'White Culture"??? Is my white culture the same as your white culture? Based on your comments I don't want to be a part of your 'white culture'. It assumes a superiority that is false-and quite frankly I detect a lot of anger and hate and fear-is THAT your white culture?
White cluture?? Wow, what a biggot. What's this have to do with this story?
Pained - Not with yours or your wife's.
Monks in Mobile??????
Who would have thunk?
"STOP ALL IMMIGRATION NOW!"
I think you mean: isolate ourselves from the rest of the world, and make believe we're living in an age that passed away over forty years ago. Here are some other ideas:
I think I can see where the hate is, and PC has nothing to do with it.
It isn't hate brainiac... when we controlled our immigration and had manufacturing jobs we were the greatest country in the world. Now we are dead broke and the shrinking middle class is on life support but can't afford the hospital bill.
So if our insanely generous current law that allows more than 1 million LEGAL immigrants a year isn't working in the new age - namely there aren't enough jobs for 1 million new immigrants and existing legal American's (because we offshored and outsourced everything to India and China) - do we not have the mental capacity to see if you find yourself in a ditch - stop digging?
I don't think you have seen the tie between unrestricted immigration - and the unemployment rate. If the economy is adding 50,000 jobs a month and we are adding over 100,000 people a month through legal immigration doesn't it make sense that if we adjusted immigration numbers downwards - American's would have more jobs and the unemployment rate would go down?
Perhaps you don't care about the unemployed in America - but if you want to ship jobs to new immigrants, why not offer yours first?
Barbara Jordan who was a respected congresswoman said the nation has a right to its citizens to control immigration.
Perhaps you are a multi-nationalist corporate shill or maybe you haven't thought through or have seen what happens when American becomes a dumping ground for the worlds poor.
As to your points above - please, I agree with all but the last 2. Each year America accepts more immigrants than all the other countries combined. Having limits in times of economic depression only makes sense and there is no hate involved - just logic and common sense which you seem to lack. I don't recall saying we need to be isolationists - before all the so-called free trade agreements we had bilateral agreements with most nations that benefited the country as a whole. Now we just have agreements that shafts the citizens of this once great country and puts more and more money in the pockets of the rich. And that money has not been trickling down.
The ties between unrestricted immigration/free trade and the decimation of the middle class in America are right there to see - but some such as yourself doesn't want to see it. Perhaps you hate your race and country so much you want to see it destroyed. I don't follow that point of view and think we can do better.
@lessthan
Brainiac? Ooh, that smarts. Name-calling accomplishes so much.
FYI, I am unemployed, and have been for some time. Being over 50 isn't pleasant in these times. Hate my race and country? Where did that come from? I am a proud veteran, eighth-generation American. And nowhere in my post did I vote for uncontrolled immigration. I am in favor of sensible, controlled immigration - it never should have been canceled. That's a far cry from "stop it all".
The vitriol in your post tells me all I need to know; you want to blame our current situation on something, but haven't the courage to look in the mirror. It's okay. you're not alone, which is why we have the government and the society we deserve.
We have very similar backgrounds I see - but when I see someone who doesn't appear to understand simple things sometimes my tongue gets the better of me.
You attacked me by putting works in my mouth that I want to isolate America from the rest of the world. I didn't say that and your attempt to link my sensible approach (lower/stop immigration and give us a chance to recover) with something stupid is well... stupid - hence my brainiac note.
I have spoken with a lot of Americans who have collective white guilt and espouse policies that hurt American's of all background - white/black/hispanic/etc.
Since you want reduced immigration that is a start. But what numbers are okay when Americans are hurting? Do we reduce legal immigration from over 1 million a year to 250,000? How many Americans displaced by cheaper immigrants (legal or otherwise) is okay with you? Half a million, 750,000?
What number of current Americans are you willing to throw under the bus and become unemployed like you so that we can import more people from everywhere else?
As a veteran you should damn well be siding with Americans and not the masses of 'future Democratic voters' we are importing now who by in large won't assimilate and are a huge net drain on the country by either consuming far more benefits than they are paying in or taking the jobs of middle class Americans.
I like the one about deporting the illegals.
Another great example of why immigration is broken. These people have no plan or desire to become Americans. They simply come here to rebuild their own society as they had it from where they came. There are real Americans and technical Americans and most of us know the difference. If you want to become an American you buy into our culture and way of life hook, line and sinker. If now, go back from where you came as you don't want to be one of us.
In a Democratic Representative Republic such as ours, no one is required to "buy into our culture and way of life hook, line and sinker." Do you live just like your next door neighbor or just like the family in another part of the country? America represents the chance to live the life and follow the beliefs of your choice, hence the Bill of Rights.
There is one overriding law in the universe: Impermanence.
Nothing stays the same forever, everything changes with time. Our only choice is whether to live with it, or pass out of existence like other extinct species. If people applied their energies toward working to embrace change, and make the result better for all in a win/win sense, rather than waste the energy in ranting against it, there would be less trouble in the world.
In theory America is, and always has been a land of change, risk, and opportunity for all people. In reality, for all practical purposes, we displaced the natives that lived here, most cruelly, with intent and greed. Now "America" is being invaded in a different fashion, one more subtle and perhaps not as threatening. This process is aided and abetted by the representatives we elected to serve our needs. There is only one thing that is certain: just as the America of today is vastly different from the one of my youth, the America of tomorrow will not only be more different than we imagine, it will be more different than we can imagine. This is not theory - it is fact, whether you embrace it or not is up to you.
The fates are not set in stone. People with a voice can overcome and change the direction we are heading. You appear to be a fatalist who wants to atone for the sins of our ancestors by willingly pushing the rest of us into a disaster that we caused by our unrestricted immigration policies. Sorry - I won't follow you.
lessThan: I think Cygnus is a Realist not a Fatalist. No one is suggesting we 'atone' for anyone's sin. We have been pushed into a 'disaster' by greedy politicians, greedy bankers, greedy wall street. The REAL power is always where the money is. Seems to me a lot of Americans prefer to 'blame' the least powerful people & avoid looking at the real culprits- POWERFUL people-the ones with the money, the ones who could care less about you or me, the ones who create the laws that favor the rich, the ones who worship only one god-and that god is called Profit.......yeah-lets argue about the nickle & dime stuff while the billionaires become trillionaires.........
Well said, William-360414, and that goes for ANY members of ANY racial power/pride/seperatist group, too. If you don't like it, then leave.
Perhaps yesterday's court ruling has touched off a few reactions? That is good but we do need to stay focused on the, and it IS real, conspired threat to our way of life. And it is NOT Asian.
Just because someone disagrees with your opinion does not make them haters. Simple differences of opinion are what America strives to allow. Your statements, on the other hand, seem to imply hatred since they are divisive and aimed at immigrants. And your statement that all immigrants in the past have learned to speak English and assimilated is false. The failure to do so is what brought about the infamous ghettos of 20th century America.
Just so you understand the current state of our nation's economy, this mess was brought about by corporate America and Wall Street and is being expanded by the same. Immigrants had nothing more to do with it than be targeted for aggressive and predatory lending practices.
Wow - where to begin... When you don't like what I say - even though it is for the good of the country - I am divisive, but when you propose we continue on a path that pisses on Americans it isn't divisive or hateful? Try taking a logic course and you may see how silly that sounds.
Yes, all of those Italian, Irish, English, French, Dutch, German ghettos - how could I forget about them! No, you must be right - the overwhelming majority of folks who immigrated to the US in the early 20th century never intermarried or learned English. For some reason I don't recall that in the old history books but since you said it - it must be true!
I agree that our current economic debacle was brought on by the super-rich and has resulted in an even more massive wealth concentration at the top. But don't kid yourself that massive numbers of legal and illegal immigrants aren't a huge part of the problem. Without the severe wage suppression by those 2 groups - middle class America would be doing a heck of a lot better than they are now.
Open your eyes pizlizard420 - unrestricted immigration (legal and illegal) is just another tool by the rich to kill off the middle class.
piglizard the country is being ruined.It is being fractured.What made America great is being cast aside for -asian temples and such.Your flower power is part of the reason this country is going to the dogs.Of course,the raping of America by Mitt and his chums ain't helping
No flower power, simply a belief that the first amendment matters and is suitable for all. Gotta agree about the Mitt, though, or any other pol who uses bigotry in any form to justify their position.
When was the last time you picked tomatoes for a living, Less? I've taken several logic courses and the original ghetto was that of the Jews in Venice. The original ghettos in America were formed by the Irish and Germans when they settled on the east coast and began to restrict themselves due mostly to language and custom. It was only after a generation or two that newcomers to America began to assimilate to America, due mostly to the waning influence of the elders in the groups over the young.
I have lived in the area for nearly 30 years and never knew there was a temple in St Elmo until this story broke in the local news. Is this near the church where the pastor and music director got into a fight after services and a deacon broke it up with a taser? LOL
May the teacher have a good rebirth and may the murderer find a way out of his mental suffering and back to the dharma so that he may understand what he has done before it is too late. May the families and friends be comforted in their loss. May our nation reconnect with its compassion for all beings as a place of refuge for all people regardless of their beliefs our their station in life.
The words near the statue of liberty were written when there were less than 1.5 billion people on the planet.There are more Asians than that. And I like asians I've met.They are part of the fabric of this country
Let's see. Asians immigrate to the U.S. go to school and get an excellent education, contribute to the economy and mind their own business. In a recent national science test, 8 of the 10 finalists were Asian immigrants. Asians family income exceeds that of Europeans in the U.S. The Asians seem to do just fine with all those lousy public schools European Americans complain about all the time. Instead of crying and ranting about the Asians, maybe you had better figure out why they do so well here. Also, unless you are Native American, you are not a "true American". Your family immigrated from somewhere else.
What a crock.Most native americans are a fraction of that the way I am part Swedish.You want to feel like you're not American,fine.There are also billions of asians all over the world.
First close the border with Canadia, right?
.
I wish they wouldn't have let the I-talians in. Dang mafia and Jersey shore!!
If you don't like it...
(RIGHT ON)
I wonder if the fellow had a mental illness. What a terrible situation.
As a very committed Tibetan Buddhist I am very sad to see this. The Buddhists in the article appear to be Theravadan which would mean they probably have origins in Southeast Asia. Buddhists are very peaceful people and many large sanghas (or religious communities) are vegetarian and have strong prohibitions against taking any life. The War in Vietnam which spread to Laos and Cambodia (all home to Theravadan Buddhists including Zen followers) disrupted traditional agrarian lifestyles and the observance of traditional beliefs.
And what was not accomplished by Richard Nixon's strategic hamlet policies which forced peasant farmers in small villages to give up their rice paddies and move to enclosed areas or Saigon was finished off by westernization. Whatever cultural monuments and traditional lifestyles the war left standing have been badly impacted by globalization, not to mention the imposition of factory labor in the form of sweatshops. Many families have been displaced which has resulted in social and individual pathology on a never before seen scale in much of Asia.
I call shenanigans on the forbiddance of taking of life, NewsJunkie-545096. If you vegans understood about really forbidding taking a life, then you would also not eat vegetables, destroy environments to build your own places to live, and fight with animals for food resources. Starvation is just as bad as killing the animal for food, if not worse, because you let the animals slowly die as opposed to having any source of mercy on them. Furthermore, when will people like you learn that there is only one culture and one race, which are both human? Honestly, everyone is a bigot these days, despite all of the flowery words, rhetoric, and theology. With that being said, yes, I can understand how saddening that things like this are these days and that guy did need to seek mental help. Religion and a lack of religion are equally as cruel in my book. People should live by true faith and not by falsehoods.
Hey lessthan99%human: Yeah, and we won't allow Irish or dogs to enter the store, all Jews have an IQ of 80, Mexicans are all lazy... why not go with all of the negative stereotypes of the last 150 years? You're so smaht, you're scary.