Man Found Guilty of 2011 Woburn Stabbing, Carjacking

Photo: The crime scene in 2011 outside Woburn’s Showcase Cinema.

A 23-year-old New London, Connecticut, man was convicted Wednesday on charges related to a stabbing and carjacking on Sept. 6, 2011, outside Woburn’s Showcase Cinema.

Chantha Chau was found guilty by Superior Court Judge Thomas Billings on the following charges: assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, armed robbery, armed carjacking and larceny of a motor vehicle, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.

Chau is expected to be sentenced Monday, Feb. 2.

According to authorities, the victim, Charles Northrup, a 42-year-old from Wakefield at the time, was waiting for a friend to arrive to go watch a movie in his 2000 Ford Crown Victoria with his window down when Chau, a stranger to him, approached the car at about 10 p.m. and motioned that he wanted a cigarette.

When Northrup reached for a cigarette, Chau began to stab him, authorities said. Northrup was stabbed in the neck before he was able to crawl out the passenger side door. Chau then chased him down in the parking lot, tackled him and continued stabbing him, authorities said.

Northrup eventually was able to break free, and Chau then fled in his car, according to authorities. Northrup had emergency surgery for life-threatening injuries and was hospitalized for three weeks.

“It was the sheer will to live that led to the victim to get away from this defendant after being stabbed, chased and tackled to the ground,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement.

Police later recovered Northrup’s car in New London.

Months after that, on April 23, 2012, Woburn Police Officer John O’Conner spotted an abandoned car with flat tired in the Holiday Inn parking lot, next to the theater, and police soon learned that the car was registered to a New London owner who lived with Chau.

A receipt in the car had Chau’s name on it, and Chau looked similar to a composite sketch of the suspect, authorities said.

After police found Chau’s prints in Northrup’s car, he was arrested on May 9, 2012, authorities said.