Aug 28, 2005 1:51 pm US/Central
Report: Vang Won't Pursue Plea Bargain
Hayward, Wis. (AP) ―
Attorneys for a Minnesota man accused of killing six hunters in northwestern Wisconsin filed court papers suggesting he may claim self-defense in his trial, a newspaper reported.
Chai Soua Vang also won't pursue a plea bargain to avoid trial, his attorneys told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis last week.
Vang, a 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., was charged with murdering six deer hunters and wounding two others in a confrontation over trespassing Nov. 21 in some isolated Sawyer County woods.
His trial is scheduled to start Sept. 12 in Hayward.
According to court documents, Vang told investigators he shot the victims because they called him names, disrespected him and "shot at me first." Survivors of the shootings told authorities Vang fired first.
Vang's attorneys filed proposed jury instructions in Sawyer County Circuit Court last week. The instructions were made public Friday and reviewed by the Star Tribune.
The defense asked Judge Norman Yackel to instruct jurors on the legal definition of self-defense. The instructions included the following:
"The defendant is not guilty of any homicide offense if the defendant reasonably believed that he was preventing or terminating an unlawful interference with his person and reasonably believed the force used was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself."
One of Vang's attorneys, Steven Kohn, declined to comment on the defense strategy. He dismissed a possible plea bargain.
"This is not a case that can be resolved through plea negotiations," Kohn told the newspaper. "There is so much disagreement on the facts that there's no real middle ground, and the charges as now alleged are not something you plead guilty to; they carry mandatory life terms."
Kohn also predicted attorneys and the judge will seat a jury in a day or two after the trial starts. Yackel ruled attorneys can select jurors from Dane County, about 250 miles from Hayward.
The defense had requested a venue change, citing publicity about the case in Sawyer County and concern about possible anti-Hmong sentiment in the area. Vang is a Hmong immigrant who came to the United States from a refugee camp in Thailand in 1980 when he was 11.
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