Upper Makefield mom admits killing sons while they slept. What happens to her now.

A 40-year-old Upper Makefield woman will spend the rest of her life in prison for killing her sons and attempting to kill another man more than two years ago, a crime that stunned this affluent community.

In her second court appearance since her arrest last year, Trinh Nguyen on Wednesday entered guilty pleas to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Jeffrey Tini, 13, and Nelson Tini, 9 and attempted murder of her ex-husband’s nephew.

Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Raymond McHugh accepted the pleas and sentenced Nguyen to two life sentences plus 10 to 20 years on the attempted murder. She will serve life without parole.

Nguyen chose not address the court. Neither did her-ex-husband, Edward Tini, the biological father of Nelson Tini, who sat through the proceedings in the front row with a victim advocate at his side.

Also present in the courtroom was Nguyen’s oldest child, 18, who declined to read the victim impact statement he submitted. The teen, Jeffrey Tini’s biological older brother, was raised by his father, Nguyen’s first husband.

Jeffrey “JT” Tini, 13, and his brother, Nelson Tini, 9, were shot in their home Monday, May 2, 2022. Their mother, Trinh Nguyen has been charged.

More on the murder of the Tini brothers Mental competency case dropped for Upper Makefield murder suspect. What happens next?

The guilty plea spared Nguyen from a possible death penalty. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office filed a notice of aggravating circumstances in the case earlier this year, a precursor for a capital punishment case.

The evidence against Nguyen portrayed her as possessing a “hardening of the heart and a wickedness of disposition,” the judge said. He added that to impose any lesser sentence would depreciate the senselessness of Nguyen’s actions.

“This is a crime I don’t think anyone can understand,” McHugh said.

Family speak about their enduring heartbreak

A string of Tini family members spoke to the court before sentencing, sharing their deep and continued grief over the loss of the Tini boys, and the near loss of Gianni Melchiondo, which has forever shattered their lives.

Doreen Deal, Edward Tini’s sister and the boys’ aunt, described how much they loved going to her beach house. They visited so often that Nelson joked that it was his family’s house. They spent many summer days at the ocean, feeding seagulls, building sand castles, collecting seashells and visiting the boardwalk, she told the court.

She recalled how Jeffrey, a gifted swimmer and martial artist, also played the piano because it made his mom happy. Nelson loved playing baseball, and his father still attends his team’s games.

“My heart will always be saddened. I will forever miss these boys,” Deal said before directing her comments to Nguyen, who sat nearby in a red jail jumpsuit. “You succeeded in ripping us apart in different directions.”

Gianni Melchiondo told the court that his cousins never leave his mind. Neither do the what-if questions, like what if the gun Nguyen aimed at him had fired, what if Nguyen then shot his mom and girlfriend, who were in the house.

“I am at peace with God, but I believe (Nguyen) will have to answer to him someday,” Melchiondo said.

Corinna Tini-Melchiondo, the boys’ aunt whose home they and Nguyen were living in, told the court she has been unable to return to work since the murders. She ended up selling the Timber Ridge Road home because she could not return to it.

Tini-Melchiondo was the one who found the boys fatally wounded in their beds, the pillows and sheets soaked with blood, when she went to check on them after Nguyen failed in her attempt to shoot her son.

“The picture in my head will never, ever go away,” she said, adding “I cannot imagine what my brother goes through daily.”

Like her other family members, Tini-Melchiondo also described Nguyen as a good and loving mother. But she also had a calculating dark side and was willing to do what ever it took to get her way.

She closed her statement by looking at Nguyen and telling her she hopes one day she finds the Lord.

2022 shooting in Upper Makefield

Prosecutors have never provided a motive for the May 2, 2022 shootings, which occurred the day before Nguyen and her sons were to be evicted from the rented three-bedroom Timber Ridge Road home for failing to pay more than $11,000 in rent.

Nguyen’s lease with her ex-sister-in-law was terminated in late September 2021, about a month before her divorce from Edward Tini was finalized, court records show.

During the investigation, authorities found a handwritten note dated a week before the murders written by Nguyen. In it she reportedly wrote directions for what to do with her and her sons’ ashes.

She also allegedly left a note in the minivan revealing that her sons, both Council Rock District students, were dead and the address of the home with a request to call 911.

Custody issues before shooting of Tini brothers

Court records show that Nguyen was also involved in a custody dispute with Edward Tini, of Philadelphia, with whom she shared custody of Nelson.

Nguyen had sole custody of Jeffrey Tini, whose father, she divorced in 2009.

Shortly before the murders, Edward Tini filed paperwork in Bucks County family court seeking to stop Nguyen from taking Nelson to visit her family in her native Vietnam. In court documents, Tini called his ex-wife a “classic flight risk” and a “classic parent kidnapper.”

Two bicycles sit parked outside an Upper Makefield home where two boys, 9 and 13 years old, were shot May 2, 2022. By noon, their mother, Trinh Nguyen, was taken into police custody for the shooting, according to Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub.

Investigators work on the scene of an Upper Makefield home where two boys, 9 and 13 years old, were shot May 2, 2022. Their mother, Trinh Nguyen, was arrested and charged in the shooting.

More on the case against Trinh Nguyen Ex feared mom accused of Upper Makefield shooting was ‘classic parent kidnapper’; fought her trip out of US

What happened on Timber Ridge Road Family legal battle over $11k in unpaid rent preceded Upper Makefield shooting, documents show

What police say happened in Upper Makefield

Prosecutors allege Nguyen shot her sons in their heads as they slept in their beds. The boys survived on life-support until their organs could be donated. They succumbed to their injuries four days later.

After shooting her sons, Nguyen went outside where she ran into Gianni Melchiondo, who lived in another property on the home, as he was leaving for work.

Nguyen gave Melchiondo a box of photos and asked him to give them to his uncle, Edward Tini. She then pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger twice, but the gun did not fire.

The man wrestled the gun away from Nguyen, ran inside his home and locked the door, and Nguyen left in a minivan, according to police.

Nguyen claimed the gun was not loaded, but it was, police said.

She was arrested hours later in the parking lot of a nearby church.  Authorities said Nguyen had heroin in her system in what police described as a suicide attempt.

Shortly after her arrest Nguyen was involuntarily committed to Norristown State Psychiatric Hospital for treatment where she remained until earlier this year when she was found to be mentally competent to stand trial.

Nguyen remains in Bucks County Jail.

Why do parents kill their children? DA says Trinh Nguyen shot her sons. Why it can be hard to spot danger when parents kill

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Upper Makefield mom avoids death penalty. What happened in court.