BOSTON — He forced his way into a Lynn family's home in 1991, fired the shot that killed a 41-year-old mother of six in front of her husband and children, and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. As of last month, he is no longer in the country.
ICE Boston confirmed Thursday morning on its official X account that the federal agency removed Oeun Lam, 52, to Cambodia on March 25, 2026.
ICE Boston arrested Oeun Lam, a criminal alien from Cambodia. His criminal history includes convictions for murder, armed robbery, and armed assault, for which he was originally sentenced to life in prison without parole.— ICE Boston (@EROBoston) May 14, 2026
Lam was removed from the United States on March 25, 2026. pic.twitter.com/0sTNG05qu8
What the post does not spell out is the part Massachusetts has to answer for: it was the state — not the federal government — that gave Lam back his shot at the street.
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February 3, 1991
On a Sunday night in February 1991, according to court records and contemporaneous reporting, an 18-year-old Lam and a co-defendant forced their way into the Nhor family's home. Soth Nhor, 46, and his wife, Cheang Ley Nhor, 41, were inside with their six children. The masked men were armed. When Soth Nhor tried to shield his daughter, one of the intruders fired a shot. Cheang Ley Nhor was hit. She died from her wounds.
On May 13, 1993, at Essex Superior Court, a jury convicted Lam of first-degree murder, two counts of armed robbery, and one count of armed assault in a dwelling. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole — the strongest sentence Massachusetts permits.
The SJC opened the door
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In January 2024, the Supreme Judicial Court handed down Commonwealth v. Mattis, 493 Mass. 216 — a 4-3 ruling that extended Massachusetts's ban on juvenile life-without-parole sentences to defendants who committed their crimes between the ages of 18 and 20. The decision was retroactive. Lam was 18 years old when he killed Cheang Ley Nhor.
He was resentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 15 years. The Parole Board granted his release in late 2025. On December 19, more than three decades after he murdered Cheang Ley Nhor in front of her family, Lam walked out of state custody — and straight into the hands of federal immigration officers, who had a detainer waiting.
The federal cleanup
A first-degree murder conviction makes a non-citizen deportable on its face. ICE held Lam from the day he was paroled until removal proceedings concluded, then put him on a flight to Cambodia on March 25, 2026. The state did not have a mechanism to keep him in. The federal government did.
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