Mum’s merciful message to son’s ‘cowardly’ murderers

Three teenagers ran down and ferociously stabbed her innocent son to death in a random machete attack.

But Ethan Hoac’s grieving mother has delivered a compassionate message to the jailed murderers.

“I hope they can learn from this mistake and grow up in the future and not make other families struggle like my family,” Annie Huynh said after two of her son’s killers were sentenced.

Ethan was walking with two friends late one evening in June 2023 when he was sent flying by a stolen car intentionally driven into him.

As the 14-year-old crawled along the roadway, two teens in face masks jumped out of the car with machetes and began stabbing him.

The June 26 attack in Melbourne’s northwest lasted less than a minute, but he suffered 30 stab wounds and died on the way to hospital.

One of the machete-wielding teens pleaded guilty to murder and was on Friday jailed for 17 years with a minimum term of 12 years and six months.

It closely resembled the sentence handed down to the other knifeman in late 2025.

The teen had shown “emerging” remorse for his actions after penning an apology letter to Ethan’s family, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Amanda Fox said.

The teen who deliberately rammed into Ethan, kicking off the 14-year-old’s killing, was found guilty of murder by a jury in June.

While he never wielded a machete, he had reached an agreement with the other two to kill or seriously injure the victim, the jury found.

Had he not struck the boy and stopped, the attack would not have occurred, Justice Fox found.

Now aged 21, he had his arms crossed as he sat in a prison audiovisual suite to hear he would spend a minimum of 14 years in prison.

His sentence, which tops out at 18 years, was longer because he had not accepted responsibility and did not receive a guilty-plea discount.

The unprovoked and cowardly physical violence by the trio, then aged 17, was substantial, Justice Fox said.

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The machete attack was “ferocious”, she added.

“The random nature and extreme brutality of your crime is difficult to comprehend,” she said.

“(Ethan) was smaller than all of you, (he was) unarmed and outnumbered.“The victim was an innocent child.“

Huynh sobbed as the judge detailed the anguish the family, including Ethan’s eight siblings, faced following his death.

“Ethan’s death has crushed their hearts,” Justice Fox said.

But his mum had forgiven her son’s killers and wanted them to understand the devastation caused, the judge said.

Outside court, Huynh remembered her son as a beautiful boy who was always positive and making people laugh.

“I just can’t believe it’s happened to my son,” she told reporters.

“It’s actually not fair and that there are no circumstances for my son to live.“

The other machete-wielding teen pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for 17 years with a non-parole period of 13 years in November 2025.

He had created a series of violent rap lyrics days after the slaying and had produced another song which appeared to boast about Ethan’s murder while in custody, the sentencing judge said.