John Jefferson
Inset, top to bottom: Bridget Nicole Compton and Trinh T. Nguyen (Bucks County DA’s Office). Background: Norristown State Hospital (YouTube).
A 51-year-old employee at a state hospital in Pennsylvania is accused of stealing more than $130,000 from a female resident currently serving two consecutive life sentences for killing her sons, shooting both kids in the head while they slept.
Bridget Nicole Compton was taken into custody last week and charged with device fraud, identity theft, forgery, and several other related offenses for allegedly stealing the funds from Trinh T. Nguyen, who last year pleaded guilty to the murders of her children, 13-year-old Jeffrey Tini and 9-year-old Nelson Tini, authorities announced.
After being arrested for her children’s slayings, Nguyen was initially found incompetent to stand trial before being sent to Norristown State Hospital for treatment.
According to a news release from the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, Compton was an employee with the Department of Public Welfare and was working at Norristown State Hospital when she first encountered Nguyen, who was a patient. Authorities say that over the course of two months, Compton was able to “unlawfully divert” five checks from Nguyen’s account to herself, banking a total of $132, 480.01.
The investigation into Compton began in November 2024, when the theft was first reported to authorities by “an interested third party.” Investigators say they quickly discovered that each of the five checks had been endorsed by Nguyen and then cashed by Compton through Cottman Check Cashing in Philadelphia. There was no evidence that Nguyen had given Compton permission to make financial transactions on her behalf.
“In speaking with the victim, detectives learned that Compton’s assistance was requested with an address change on the account so that the victim could continue to receive account-related mail correspondence, but the defendant was never authorized to transfer any funds from the account,” the release states. “During an interview with the defendant, Compton acknowledged to detectives that she impersonated the victim in phone calls to the financial institution, authorizing checks to be sent to the address of Compton’s mother, from which she would retrieve and liquidate them at the Philadelphia check cashing business.”
Police said Compton confessed to having already spent the funds, with most of it going toward a July 2023 family vacation to Puerto Rico and a gift of $10,000 to her mother.
“I got the money in July and was broke by Christmas,” Compton allegedly told police. “[T]hat’s how quick it went.
Compton was released from detention on Friday after posting an unsecured bond of $100,000.
Nguyen last year pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for killing her sons and was given two consecutive sentences of life in a state correctional facility without the chance for parole.
Authorities said Nguyen planned her children’s murders for some time, even penning instructions in a “handwritten will” on how to handle their remains.
As Law&Crime previously reported, there was never any doubt that Nguyen was the prime suspect in the early morning May 2, 2022, murders inside the family’s Upper Makefield Township home, as she was caught on video pointing a gun at her ex-husband’s nephew, neighbor Gianni Melchiondo, a cousin of the victims.
The criminal complaint said Melchiondo wrapped Nguyen in a “bear hug” and grabbed a “black revolver” she had pointed at his face that morning. Ngyuen “pulled the trigger two times, but the gun did not fire,” documents said.
From there, Nguyen fled the scene in a minivan to get heroin in New Jersey. When authorities found her, they saw she had left a note in her vehicle that said: “Please call 911! My children are Dead in their bed at 119 Timber Ridge Rd 18940.”
Investigators soon concluded that Nguyen planned to take her own life, saying a “handwritten will” dated April 25, 2022, was damning proof.
First Assistant District Attorney Jen Schorn previously said that Nguyen “wrote a manifesto” that gave away her “simmering rage” and violent plans.
“It’s clear our evidence showed that this defendant had that wickedness of disposition that she had made these plans,” said the prosecutor. “She wrote a manifesto laying out what she was going to do, and you could see throughout the hate she had for others and the people she blamed.”
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