Until last week, Phanny Phay’s family felt like they never had a chance to tell their story in court.

Phanny Phay (Courtesy of Phay family)

The 28-year-old’s boyfriend, Andre Duprey, was charged with her 2017 murder in St. Paul, and found not guilty by reason of mental illness.

Phay’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Duprey in Ramsey County District Court and a jury last week awarded them $17 million.

It wasn’t about the money, but about seeing some kind of justice and telling Phay’s story, said her family’s St. Paul-based attorneys, Paul Applebaum and Megan Curtis.

“This is a massive verdict, and it reflects the pain that was felt by this family and more importantly the person that Phanny was,” Curtis said.

Phanny Phay (pronounced PAH-nee py) “was a superstar,” Applebaum said. “The first one in her family to go to college, and all she did was take care of everybody.”

Phay received a full scholarship and graduated from the University of Minnesota. She was working in the medical field, and planned to go to medical school and become a pediatrician because she loved children.

“She had just such a bright future in front of her,” Curtis added. “She was from a Cambodian family, and they’re very, very culturally close and tight knit. Her death changed the entire family.”

Found with defensive wounds

Early on Nov. 19, 2017, St. Paul police responded to a Highland Park apartment and found Duprey standing in the doorway of the couple’s bedroom holding a knife. A bloody shotgun was on the bed.

Duprey was chanting, “demon, demon,” and police used force to knock the knife from his hand to get to Phay, but she could not be saved.

An autopsy found Phay had been shot in her head and neck. She had 45 stab wounds throughout her body, her right hand was bruised and she had cuts that appeared to be defensive wounds, according to a criminal complaint. Bruises on her neck were consistent with muzzle imprints.

Phay’s family’s attorneys asked the jury in the lawsuit to award a large amount for her pain and suffering.

Phay and Duprey met at the University of Minnesota, and dated for seven years. He graduated with a degree in political science and previously worked as a legislative aide at the state Capitol.

Duprey, then 29 and an Army veteran, had no significant criminal record in Minnesota.

Thought he was battling a demon

An aunt of Duprey, who was staying with the couple during a visit to Minnesota, said she woke up to a commotion, opened the bedroom door and saw Duprey holding a shotgun to Phay who was crying, according to a court document. She grabbed her 7-year-old daughter and ran to get help.

Andre Antwan Duprey (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

According to a psychiatric evaluation conducted by a doctor in the months following Duprey’s arrest, the incident was the final scene of an escalating psychotic episode that had been gripping Duprey for weeks.

Soon before Phay was killed, she was texting Duprey’s former foster mother, a mentor of Duprey’s, and Duprey’s cousin for advice.

She wrote to Duprey’s former foster mother, “I think Andre needs to get committed,” and sent her information about “manic episodes,” according to a court document. She told the woman that Duprey had two guns and a knife, and asked how they could get him committed.

The woman told Phay to call 911. Phay responded, “He has weapons. I don’t want them to have a reason to shoot him.”

Duprey thought he was battling a demon when he killed Phay, a doctor concluded, according to court records. Duprey was diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms after Phay’s death.

A Ramsey County judge agreed with the doctor’s findings, and in 2018 found that Duprey had committed second-degree intentional murder and concluded Duprey was not guilty based on his mental illness.

Family shocked to see him at restaurant

Phanny Phay, right, with her family at the graduation of her niece from high school in 2013. From left to right are Timothy Phay, Phanny’s brother, Soeun Phay, Phanny’s grandmother, Marinny Phay, Phanny’s niece, Alyssa Phay, Phanny’s aunt and Naroeun Phay, Phanny’s mother. (Courtesy of the Phay family)

After Duprey was found not guilty, he was civilly committed as a person who is mentally ill and dangerous to the public. He was sent to the Forensic Mental Health Program, formerly known as the Minnesota Security Hospital, in St. Peter. He was subsequently sent to a group home. He remains under civil commitment, which includes requirements to take medication that’s prescribed to him and receive psychiatric care.

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Phay’s family bumped into Duprey at a restaurant when he’d been moved to the halfway house. They didn’t know he was out of the hospital in St. Peter and they were shocked, Applebaum said.

Timothy Phay, Phanny’s brother who was 18 years her senior, was like a father to her. He filed the wrongful death lawsuit against Duprey in 2024 on behalf of the family.

“Phanny’s story of achievement and compassion was lost in the criminal trial, so the family is pleased that Andre Duprey has finally been held accountable,” said Marinny Phay, Timothy’s daughter, who was closer in age to Phanny, in a statement. “After eight years, the family got justice.”

‘About accountability’

Curtis called the case heartbreaking.

“It’s about accountability,” she said. “The family never had their day in court, so it was about being able to look him in the eye and tell him the pain that he caused the family.”

They sobbed when they testified during the trial in the lawsuit last week, Applebaum said.

“Here’s what this woman was like: She flew to India to help in a hospital delivering babies,” he said. “She didn’t get paid, she went on her own dime, and spent two weeks there working. Then she came back here and volunteered. She was every parent’s dream child” and a source of strength for her family.

Rare civil case

A wrongful death lawsuit in Minnesota after a finding of not guilty due to mental illness is rare, Curtis said. The attorneys could not tell jurors in the lawsuit anything about the criminal aspect of the case.

“The jury’s going to see that he’s out (and in the courtroom) and they’re going to think, ‘What’s this all about?’” Applebaum said, adding he figured they would think he was acquitted.

Still, mental illness is not a defense to a claim of wrongful death when it comes to civil law in Minnesota, jurors were told in instructions about deciding the case.

In Duprey’s legal response to the lawsuit, his attorney wrote he was in a psychotic state at the time, “unable to control his actions or form intent,” and his “actions were unintentional.” His defenses were lack of intent and mental illness, attorney Seamus Mahoney wrote.

Duprey had depression, but “certainly did not think I had mania, bipolar disorder or psychosis,” which he was later diagnosed with, according to his response to the lawsuit. He didn’t seek treatment for depression because he didn’t have health insurance after he left his job with the state of Minnesota.

He started an application for Veterans Affairs medical health benefits in summer 2017 and learned he was approved in the fall of 2017, but said there was a long wait to get appointments and he never used those benefits, his response said.

Mahoney’s argument was that Duprey, now 39, did not remember the incident and couldn’t have formed the intent necessary, according to Applebaum and Curtis. Mahoney could not be reached for comment Monday.

“They were trying to prove to the jury that (he thought) the person that he killed was a demon, it was not Phanny Phay,” Curtis said. “Our position was it doesn’t matter if it’s mistaken identity.”

Jury considered loss of companionship

Jurors were told the elements of a wrongful death were that Phay’s death “was caused by the wrongful act” of Duprey and that he intended to cause the wrongful act, and needed to be proved by a preponderance of the evidence, which a verdict form shows the jurors found.

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For Phay’s pain and suffering before her death, the jury awarded $5 million to her family. The jury decided on an additional $9 million for her family’s loss of Phay’s guidance, advice, comfort and companionship up to the date of the verdict, plus $3 million from the Wednesday verdict to the future.

Duprey was unemployed as of a July court filing.

“We intend to pursue Duprey for the award no matter how long it takes,” Applebaum said. “… It wasn’t an empty legal exercise motivated by revenge.”

Duprey said Monday that his “heart aches for the family” and he thought the verdict was fair.

“I want them to find happiness,” he said, adding that it will take awhile, but he “will work as hard as I can to pay as much of it as possible.”

For help

Help is available in Ramsey County and St. Paul through the St. Paul & Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project 24/7 by calling 651-645-2824. Throughout Minnesota, the Day One crisis line can be called at 866-223-1111 or texted at 612-399-9995.

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988. The Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting HOME to 741741.