{"id":411345,"date":"2026-08-20T00:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/411345\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T00:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:16:10","slug":"polie-phan-found-guilty-of-capital-murder-after-two-marijuana-businessman-found-dead-on-tc-jester-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/411345\/","title":{"rendered":"Polie Phan found guilty of capital murder after two marijuana businessman found dead on TC Jester in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A 28-year-old man has been found guilty of capital murder for the deaths of two marijuana growers whose bodies <\/a>were found in the Houston area three years ago, according to court records.<\/p>\n

The Harris County Clerk’s website states that Polie Phan has been convicted and is expected to be sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n

ABC13 originally reported on the case in the Timbergrove Garden community on January 27, 2023.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: Man found shot to death in Houston home was visiting from Oregon, police say<\/a>

Neighbors requested a welfare check for a home in the 1700 block of T.C. Jester after reporting to police that they had noticed a Toyota Prius running in the garage for hours and that the homeowner was not answering the phone.<\/p>\n

Once Houston Police Department officers arrived, 35-year-old Dana Lars Ryssdal was found with several gunshot wounds inside the home, which was owned by his friend James Gerald Martin III’s parents.<\/p>\n

It was also reported that Martin was missing, along with a white Dodge Ram truck.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, several moving boxes and bags of what appeared to be marijuana, packaged in airtight wrapping, were found in various places throughout the home. Possible firearm projectiles were also found. In the kitchen, a crime scene investigator found multiple bundles of cash in the freezer, totaling $35,980, according to records.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until February 1 that Martin was found bound, shot, and killed in the trunk of the Toyota Prius that was at an HPD impound lot for evidence processing.<\/p>\n

Documents said Martin’s mom told officials that her son and Ryssdal were commercial marijuana farmers in Oregon and were in the process of selling their cannabis harvesting business.<\/p>\n

Two months later, three people, Phan and Jaidan Vu Nguyen, and Kathy Vu, were identified and wanted in connection with the incident.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Father wants to shake fugitive task force leader’s hand after men accused of killing son were caught<\/a><\/p>\n

Kathy was arrested and found to have allegedly cleaned up the home where Ryssdal was found. She was helping Phan, with whom she was in a relationship.<\/p>\n

Jaidan Vu and Phan were on the run and were eventually captured in Vietnam,<\/a> six months after the murders.<\/p>\n

According to the HPD, an H-E-B receipt led them to identify all three suspects.<\/p>\n

Vu allegedly told police that Martin owed Phan over $40,000 “after a narcotics-related transaction did not go as planned.” Court documents said police believed that Phan and Martin were familiar with each other.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: 2 suspects wanted in Heights double murder fled to Vietnam, officials believe<\/a><\/p>\n

Kathy and Jaidan’s sentencing status is unknown at this time.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A 28-year-old man has been found guilty of capital murder for the deaths of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[143614,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-411345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-143614","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}