Sep 17, 2005 3:27 pm US/Central
Vang Guilty Of Murder And Attempted Murder
Hayward, Wis. (WCCO) ―
A jury has found Chai Soua Vang guilty on all six counts of first-degree homicide for the deaths of six deer hunters in Wisconsin last November.
Vang, 36, of St. Paul, was also found guilty of three counts of attempted murder.
The courtroom was packed with about 100 people for the reading of the verdict, as it had been throughout the trial. Vang, dressed in a business suit, sat motionless as the verdict was read.
Ten women and four men were picked for the jury, but after closing arguments, two became alternates and 12 jurors decided the case. The jury came from in Dane County -- which include Madison -- because of pretrial publicity in Sawyer County. They debated for three-and-a-half hours before reaching a decision.
Vang, dressed in a business suit with family members seated behind him, showed no visible emotion as the judge read the verdict. Outside the court, one of his friends, Pofwmyeh Yang, questioned the jury's makeup and maintained Vang was innocent.
"All Caucasian, all American. Why can't there be one Hmong? Why can't there be one minority in there?" Yang said. "I believe only one person can judge, and that's God. But God didn't judge today."
Vang's sister, Chou Vang, said the jury's short deliberations were not fair to her brother.
"Everyone was white. They do not understand. They will never understand what my brother went through out there," she said. "He was not a dog to sit there and let them shoot at him. He was proud of who he is."
Defense lawyer Steven Kohn said the verdict was not a surprise.
"We had no illusions. The facts were incredibly difficult from a defense standpoint," he said.
While the original jury pool of 450 people included minorities, Kohn said most if not all of them asked not to be on the jury because of a conflict or personal feelings.
"They were given the same deference as the Caucasians," he said.
Relatives of the victims issued statements that the verdict was welcome but couldn't make up for their loss.
"The verdict of guilty will never bring my brother back, but we can start the healing process," said Linda Lavin, the sister of slain hunter Allan Laski.
Bruce Crotteau, brother of shooting victim Robert Crotteau, said his brother was a fun-loving guy with a wide circle of friends, and the only thing he deserved the day of the shooting was to continue the family tradition of fall deer hunting.
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, who headed the prosecution team, called it a "just and fair verdict" for the victims of the shootings and said it should not be taken as reflecting racial animosity on either side.
"I would hope that this matter be perceived as it has been, I think, by counsel on both sides -- which was a matter between two hunting parties and not something involving race relations," she said.
With the fall deer hunt approaching, she was asked if there was concern about racial tensions.
"I don't know if it's a real concern or not," she said. "We have not had any significant incidents of concern reported here in Sawyer County, and I would hope that that would be the case throughout the deer hunting season."
Dennis Drew, Al Laski, Bob Crotteau, Joey Crotteau, Jessica Willers and Mark Roidt were shot Nov. 21, 2004, in the woods in Sawyer County, Wis.
Terry Willers and Lauren Hesebeck were also shot Nov. 21. Both testified against Vang in court this week.
On Thursday, Vang took the stand in his defense. He said he fired at the group of hunters because he feared for his life.
Vang said the shootings happened after one of the white hunters used profanities and racial slurs when angrily confronting him for trespassing in a tree stand used to hunt deer last fall.
Vang insisted he killed the hunters in self-defense, although the two survivors of the shootings testified earlier that only one shot was fired at Vang, and that was after he had already shot the victims.
When cross-examined by Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, Vang was asked if each victim deserved to die. Vang answered "no" in some cases and "yes" in others.
Autopsies showed the youngest of the victims, 20-year-old Joey Crotteau, was shot four times in the back or side. Three others -- Robert Crotteau, Laski and Jessica Willers -- were shot in the back, some multiple times. Roidt was shot once in the head and Drew was shot once in the lower chest.
No sentencing date was immediately set. Vang faces a mandatory life term for each of the six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and 65 years in prison for each of the three counts of attempted first-degree homicide.
(© 2005 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
