ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) – Har San, convicted of murder in the shooting death of his wife, was sentenced to 110 years Friday by Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull.
He was found guilty Feb. 10 of murder, methamphetamine dealing, narcotic drug and marijuana dealing, and using a firearm in the commission of an offense resulting in death.
Police found San’s wife, Ro Ma, shot to death inside their home in the 2100 block of Chartwell Drive around 11 p.m. on March 19, 2022. The coroner ruled that she died of a gunshot wound to her chest.
San’s attorney, Richard Thonert, pointed to San’s young age, 23, when the murder was committed. Tesa Helge, Chief Counsel for the Allen County Prosecutor, asked for the maximum, arguing that he was more concerned with hiding drugs after he shot his wife than attending to her or their two-year-old daughter who now has trouble sleeping.
“Daddy, pop, pop, pop,” the toddler says when explaining what she saw, Helge said. San’s wife was “completely vulnerable and defenseless.”
His wife’s family decided not to come to the sentencing– however, Har San’s mother did, with two friends. After the sentencing, she collapsed in the hallway of the third floor and had to be attended to by medics.
Har San did not speak.
After the shooting, 23-year-old San showed no emotion and detectives found his responses unusual, according to a probable cause affidavit.
“What are you guys trying to get out of me?” San asked Fort Wayne homicide detective Brian Martin. “Just put me away for life?”
Checking video of the scene, detectives saw San hiding something at the rear of their home and throwing something to the west of the apartment that turned out to be an AR-style pistol. The stash that was hidden was marijuana, methamphetamine and a duffel bag, court documents said.
Drugs were also found throughout their apartment including marijuana, meth and blue M30 pills often laced with fentanyl. All the drugs were packaged for sale, the probable cause affidavit noted.
In a bedroom closet near his wife’s body, detectives found a photo of San holding an AR-style pistol with a mesh shell catcher that looked identical to the one found outside the apartment, according to court documents.
Taking it a step further, San, when cornered, tried to pin the blame on Black people that a woman at the scene said she saw.
He claimed he ran to the front door to look for the shooter, but didn’t see anyone and never looked out the back door after his wife was shot. Police found no evidence of a forced entry. San said it was his wife who bought a 9mm Glock handgun and he hadn’t shot a gun recently.
But when Martin asked him the last time he shot a gun, San said “I don’t want to answer that.”
Witnesses told police that night they heard the couple fighting in the Burmese language and San was accused of cheating on his wife.
Ro Ma was in her bedroom with her daughter with the door shut when witnesses heard the gun “rack” and the bedroom door get kicked in.
“Har San, stop stop!” the witnesses heard her say. Then they heard a gunshot.
San then became more preoccupied with hiding his drugs and guns than tending to his wife, witnesses said.
On the ride from a hospital, Han advised one of his male relatives to tell the truth “but say you don’t know anything if the police ask questions.” At first, the relative went along with it because he was scared that something would happen to him.
