Wrong sentence given in stabbing

GLENDALE — A 74-year-old Monterey Park man convicted of stabbing a cardiologist several times in 2006 was resentenced Monday after a judge handed down the wrong prison term, officials said.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Suzette Clover had mistakenly sentenced Mike Du Trieu to 15 years in prison along with an additional five-year term, said Shiara Dávila-Morales, a Los Angeles County District Attorney's office spokeswoman.

The new, adjusted seven-year prison term was supposed to be Trieu's sentence, she said. He was also ordered to serve an additional five years in prison for permanently paralyzing physician Mohamed Latif.

He was convicted July 9 of trying to kill Latif, who worked at the Heartbeat Cardiovascular Medical Group in the 600 block of Broadway in Glendale, officials said. Jurors also determined that Trieu was sane when he stabbed Latif.

Trieu had been Latif's patient for more than a decade before attacking him in his office, authorities said.

The jury agreed with prosecutors who alleged Trieu pulled out a pocketknife during a routine doctor's visit and stabbed Latif in the back, left shoulder and face.

Another physician working that day had to pull Trieu off of Latif while he was being stabbed, according to police reports.