December 23, 2024
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Bridget Compton, 51, of Philadelphia, faces charges of identity theft, forgery and related offenses for allegedly stealing more than $130,000 from a psychiatric patient at Norristown State Hospital, Bucks County prosecutors said. Compton allegedly stole the money from the bank account of Trinh Nguyen, who's serving a 40-year prison sentencing for killing her two young sons in 2022.
An employee at Norristown State Hospital is charged with stealing more than $130,000 from the woman serving life sentences for killing her two sons at the family's Bucks County home in 2022. At least some of the money was stolen while convicted killer Trinh Nguyen was being held at Norristown State Hospital, months before she pleaded guilty to the shootings, authorities said Monday.
Nguyen, 41, had fatally shot 9-year-old Nelson Tini and 13-year-old Jeffrey Tini, while they were asleep on May 2, 2022, in Upper Makefield. Weeks after she was arrested, Nguyen was transferred to Norristown State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation and treatment. After almost a year at the hospital, she was transferred back to Bucks County's prison and then last December pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.
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Bridget Compton, 51, of the Oxford Circle neighborhood in lower Northeast Philly, worked at Norristown State Hospital and had contact with Nguyen when she was held there from June 2022 until May 2023, investigators said.
Edward Tini, Nguyen's ex-husband and the father of the younger boy who was slain, reported the thefts to police on Nov. 4 after he discovered five checks, totaling $132,480, had been withdrawn from Nguyen's bank account between April and June 2023.
Detectives traced the checks and found that four had been made out to Compton in amounts ranging from $800 to $5,000. The fifth check, for $122,680, was written to Nguyen. Compton had the checks mailed to her mother's address in the Tacony neighborhood, police said. She allegedly picked them up from her mom, endorsed them and had them cashed at Cottman Check Cashing in Northeast Philadelphia.
Two of the checks allegedly were issued while Nguyen was still in the hospital, and the other three were issued after Nguyen was sent to prison in Bucks County.
Compton allegedly impersonated Nguyen during phone calls with her bank and used forged documents to make it appear like Nguyen had approved the transactions, police said. Investigators said Nguyen had asked Compton to help her change the address on her bank account so that she could receive statements, but Nguyen told police she never gave Compton permission to transfer money from her bank according to the criminal complaint.
Police said Compton admitted she cashed the checks and spent it all last year on personal expenses, including a family trip to Puerto Rico and a gift of $10,000 to her mother, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.
Compton has been placed on administrative leave at Norristown State Hospital, Bucks County prosecutors said, but it could not immediately be confirmed what job title she holds there. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, which operates the hospital, referred questions about Compton to the Pennsylvania Office of Administration, which could not immediately be reached Monday afternoon.
Compton is charged with access device fraud, identity theft, forgery and related offenses. The investigation remains ongoing with detectives in Bucks and Montgomery counties, prosecutors said.
The murders of the Tini children by their mother in Upper Makefield was widely covered by media in the region.
In the months after her divorce from Tini, court documents showed that Nguyen faced an eviction and owed thousands of dollars in back rent to her landlord. Tini had moved out of the duplex on Timber Ridge Road, where the two boys remained with their mother.
After Nguyen shot her kids, she allegedly tried to fire at her landlord's 22-year-old son, who was able to disarm her when the gun jammed, police said. Nguyen fled the property in her van and was later arrested in the parking lot of the Washington Crossing United Methodist Church. The two boys, who were students in the Council Rock School District, spent several days on life support before they died.
Prosecutors never revealed a clear motive for the shooting.
"This is a crime I don't think anyone can understand," Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Raymond McHugh said at Nguyen's plea hearing.
