Sep 26, 2005 7:09 pm US/Central
Vang To Be Sentenced In Early November
Hayward, Wis. (AP) ―
A Minnesota truck driver convicted of murdering six deer hunters and wounding two others last fall will be sentenced in early November, just days before another deer hunting season opens, authorities said Monday.
Chai Soua Vang, 37, will be sentenced Nov. 8 in Sawyer County Circuit Court, said Kelly Kennedy, a spokesman for Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager.
The jury deliberated about three hours Sept. 16 before finding Vang, from St. Paul, Minn., guilty on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide. The Nov. 21 slayings occurred after a confrontation over Vang's trespassing in a tree stand.
Vang faces mandatory life in prison on each of the first-degree murder convictions. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty. Judge Norman Yackel could order the sentences to be served at the same time or one after the other. He will also decide the date Vang becomes eligible for parole for each conviction.
This fall's nine-day gun deer season opens Nov. 19. The shootings that killed six Rice Lake area hunters occurred on the second day of last year's season on some private woods in southern Sawyer County.
Vang, who is Hmong, testified he shot in self-defense after one hunter shouted profanities at him and used racial slurs before another fired at him. The two survivors testified the white hunters never shot at Vang before he took the scope off his semiautomatic rifle, turned and opened fire on them. They said the only threat made was to report Vang to state game wardens for trespassing.
Four of the victims were shot in the back and all but one were unarmed, according to testimony.
Prosecutors told the all-white jury during the six-day trial that Vang acted out of anger, not self-defense. Vang's attorney argued that Vang feared for his life in a confrontation driven by racial prejudice.
Killed were Robert Crotteau, 42; his son Joey Crotteau, 20; Al Laski, 43; Mark Roidt, 28; Jessica Willers, 27; and Dennis Drew, 55.
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