Prajak Masawang (seated)
could face the death penalty for the gruesome murder of 2 young boys and
their cousin / baby sitter.
Boonlua Chatree
Authorities plan to seek the death penalty for a Kanchanaburi man
who confessed to the Children’s Day killing of two American-Thai boys and
their teenage nanny in East Pattaya.
Prajak Masawang, 19, re-enacted the brutal killings of 7-year-old Joseph and
2-year-old Michael Lieberman, and 18-year-old Wipawee Kamsai Jan. 13 at
their Paradise Hill 2 village on Soi Khao Noi. The photographed confession,
first attempted the day before, quickly devolved into chaos, with hundreds
of residents swarming the Lieberman property and relatives, forced to watch
inside the house, reportedly lunging at Prajak with a knife despite a
20-officer-strong police guard.
Anguish and anger flowed freely in both the neighborhood and at Bunsamphan
Temple, where hundreds of people assembled earlier that day to mourn the
three young victims and curse both the alleged murderer and Paradise Hill’s
lax security, which allowed an intoxicated Prajak to enter the gated
neighborhood around 3 a.m. despite refusing to surrender his identification
card. Police said the suspect continued to loiter outside the house even
after slaying the victims.
The tragic events began early Jan. 11, when Prajak sat drinking and
impatiently waiting for his South Pattaya go-go bar girlfriend to return
from work outside the home of Jason Lieberman and his wife Wilawan, who had
driven 17-year-old Chanasda Thonarak to and from work.
Demanding Wilawan’s phone number and their estimated return time, Prajak
allegedly forced his way past Wipawee - Wilawan’s niece from Kalasin - into
the Lieberman home shortly before 4 a.m. When she only shouted at him to
leave, Prajak confessed to strangling the girl, then unsuccessfully
attempting to rape her. Unable to perform, Prajak told police he then
stabbed the girl three times in the stomach before slitting her throat.
During the fracas, 7-year-old Joseph intervened, coming to his cousin’s
rescue and attempting to pull Prajak off her body. The suspect responded by
slitting the boy’s throat.
The commotion also awoke 2-year-old Michael. Trying to stop neighbors from
being alerted, Prajak told police he felt he had no choice but to kill the
toddler by strangling him with a towel.
Rather than flee the bloody scene, however, Prajak went back outside and sat
on his friend’s Honda motorbike until his girlfriend returned with Wilawan,
who didn’t discover the murders until after the couple had sped away.
Village security cameras caught them easily escaping without intervention by
guards.
Banglamung and Chonburi police quickly mobilized, as Wilawan called husband
Jason to return quickly from the Philippines, where he was working on a job
as a information-technology security consultant.
Investigators recovered Prajak’s telephone SIM card from a PTT gas station
in Sriracha and traced ownership of his motorbike to Nattawut Saetia, 30, a
friend from his hometown in Thamuang, Kanchanaburi. Prajak already was
facing criminal charges there for robbing and cutting four fingers off a
local man in January.
After his arrival in Kanchanaburi, Prajak telephoned and confessed to his
father, who persuaded him to surrender to police there. His father said he
feared for his son’s life if he didn’t.
Judging by the reaction of the East Pattaya community, he was right. Police
had to abort plans for their on-camera reenactment of the heinous crime Jan.
12 when nearly 1,000 people surrounded the Lieberman property. Despite
Nongprue, Banglamung and Chonburi stations supplying about 200 officers to
maintain security, the crowd broke through Lieberman’s fence, damaged their
home and trashed the property as they fought to kill the suspect. Police
sped Prajak away before he could be harmed.
More than 500 people reportedly returned to the scene following the funeral
amid reports police would try the reenactment again. They did, but not until
10:30 p.m. when only about 200 people returned. Officers locked the house’s
doors and guarded windows as the crowd pressed in, eventually getting their
video-recorded confession and smuggling the suspect away by disguising him
in a police volunteer uniform.
He was charged with three homicides, among other offenses, and reportedly
faces death for the killing of the three youths.
