Posted on 09/17/2005 11:26:01 AM PDT by Gandalf_The_Gray
Hayward - Chai Soua Vang's tearful farewell to his family after his testimony a day earlier proved prophetic Friday, as a jury convicted him of nine charges that guarantee he will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing six hunters and wounding two others. After three hours of deliberations, the jury rejected Vang's claims of self-defense and found the truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., guilty of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide. In addition to the six mandatory life sentences, Vang faces an additional 225 years in prison.
His sentencing date has not been set.
Vang's family and the victims' relatives sat on opposite sides of the courtroom through six days of testimony and arguments, and they remained divided after the verdicts.
Bruce Crotteau, whose brother and nephew died in the attack, called the verdicts just, and he rejected Vang's assertions that his kin deserved to die for berating the Hmong immigrant with racial slurs and obscenities.
"The only thing they deserved that day was to continue to enjoy our family's tradition of being together," Crotteau said, standing next to Carter Crotteau, who had checked the pulses of his dead father and brother that day in the woods.
Vang's sister, Chou Vang, said the jury unfairly convicted the family patriarch without considering his plight as he faced a group of hostile hunters.
"They will never understand what my brother went through up there," Vang said. "I'm glad my brother did it, to stand up with pride and defense himself."
In an animated turn on the witness stand, Vang, 36, testified Thursday that he had gotten lost while hunting and climbed a tree stand. One of the land owners found him and ordered him to leave, but as Vang was walking out of the area, more hunters in the group intercepted him on ATVs.
Vang said they threatened him and berated him with racial slurs. One of them, Terry Willers, had fired a shot in his direction as Vang tried to walk away, Vang said, and at that point he feared for his life.
Willers testified that he never fired a shot, and that he dove for cover as Vang swung around and began to fire upon the group from about 30 yards away.
Vang wounded Willers, then charged the group and killed Dennis Drew, 55, and Mark Roidt, 28, and wounded Lauren Hesebeck, 49.
The military-trained marksman then chased the Crotteaus, Robert, 42, and Joey, 20, hundreds of yards through the thick woods. He shot each of them in the back.
After reloading and turning his coat to camouflage himself, Vang then fatally ambushed Allan Laski, 43, and Jessica Willers, 27, as they rode up an ATV. Vang claimed Laski was reaching for a rifle; none was found by investigators.
When his testimony ended Thursday and the jury was gone, Vang cried, bowed and knelt in prayer before his family.
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager told the jury in her closing argument Friday that Vang had acted out of anger, not fear, as he stalked and killed his mostly unarmed victims.
"His response was grossly disproportionate to whatever remarks were made," Lautenschlager said later.
She minimized the role prejudice played in the confrontation and subsequent murders, saying it was a matter between two hunting parties, not a confrontation between people of different races.
In his closing argument, however, defense attorney Steven Kohn said racial prejudice was the catalyst for the events, particularly the elder Crotteau's aggressive and hostile demands that Vang leave his property.
"Those are threats, and that's intimidating and that causes fear," Kohn told the jury.
Vang's family and supporters said that racial prejudice influenced the guilty verdicts, as well. Though jurors were selected from Dane County, to avoid any potential impact of heavy pretrial publicity or strong feelings in the local community, there were no minorities among the final eight women and four men who decided the case. That denied Vang justice, some said.
"I'm not satisfied with this trial and this court," Vang's uncle, Vang Fong Vang, said. "I feel Mr. Vang is a hero, to be able to defense himself and now he is alive."
A tearful Chou Vang said the hunters who accosted her brother share a responsibility for the horrible aftermath.
"Why didn't they just let him go?" she asked. "They could have prevented this. We know it, you know it and they know it."
The Crotteaus, Laskis, Willers and Drews who spoke after the verdict avoided any mention of race. They expressed sympathy for Vang's family but reminded everyone that their loved ones are dead.
"There is no punishment great enough to equal the suffering and loss we have endured," said Marilyn Peplau, one of Dennis Drew's five siblings.
"A verdict of guilty will never bring my brother back, but we can now begin the healing process," said Linda Levan, Laski's sister. "He never deserved to die, his life was cut way too short."
Patti Willers said she misses her daughter every day, and the others said the same about their dead husbands, fathers and brothers.
As the verdicts were read, the grieving survivors showed no joy or exultation, only more of the tears that they shed throughout the trial and the days following the attack in the woods. They embraced quietly and filed out of the courtroom with both a sense of justice and the ever-present feelings of loss.
"The justice served today was a small part of the healing process," Patti Willers said.
Much of the case as presented hinged on how credible jurors found Terry Willers, who first discovered Vang in the tree stand, and who denied he ever shot at Vang later.
As the courthouse cleared, Sawyer County Sheriff's Investigator Gary Gillis said he never doubted Willers and that the quiet construction worker had never varied his story during different interviews. Vang, however, changed his story at least three times, Gillis said, at first accusing Willers of shooting his own friends.
Gillis remembers that interrogation, the morning after the slayings near the Town of Exeland.
"He had no emotions whatsoever," Gillis said. "The man I saw on the witness stand was nothing like the man I interviewed."
Gillis also contrasted the views of Vang's family, who wondered why the hunters hadn't let Vang walk away. He acknowledged that at several moments that day, the events could have turned to a peaceful conclusion.
But the blame is not on the hunters, he said.
"There's so many times that Mr. Vang could have gone in a different direction," Gillis said.
I see no evidence that he has a conscience.
What bothers me about the reporting is that they are accepting without question Vang's claims that he was racially taunted by his victims.
As a Texan, I have to say that I'm awfully glad that we have the death penalty here. If there was ever a prime candidate, this slime ball is it!
This attorney is a real puke!
This guy should swing on a short, strong rope from a tall stout tree ASAP. That's what should happen.
Regards,
GtG
PS Wisconsin NEEDS a death penalty!
Thanks for the politically correct spinning! Yeah, that's right.
I get your point, but did the survivors deny it?
Even were one to accept Vang's version of events, there as still facts that strongly suggest he knowingly killed unarmed people.
Don't know how there was any possible way this guy thought he would not get convicted.
Pretty hard to shoot someone in the back and claim they were threatening you.
Since I was a young boy near the Cambodian border, late December 1968, I've been tormented by nightmares of a tall, skinny white guy on a SWIFT boat machine-gunning my family in the back.
Murder 6 and get 3 squares and free healthcare for life. Glad I live in Texas
LOL just DAMN.
You are exactly correct. It appears to me that Vang is a sociopath. From the remarks of his family, I have my concerns about them as well. Note that they were proud of him and what he did.
This is a very human thing in a tribal culture, but not acceptable in the U.S.A., or in any civilization, which must overcome tribal loyalties.
I also suspect that Vang killed before and got away with it. Except for a few breaks against him, things he did not expect, he could easily have gotten away with these horrendous crimes.
We had the death penalty way back when gran'dad was a pup (mid 1800's). The last execution occurred in Kenosha, down in Library park. It was a well attended hanging. Unfortunately, the executioner botched the job and the crowd was so put off be the resultant kicking and squirming of the main event that the legislature "pulled the plug" so to speak. My personal feeling is that it is long past time to re-insert the plug! Lest we be faced with the care and feeding of this slimy little miscreant for 60 more years.
Regards,
GtG
PS We could always hope for the "Dahlmer" solution in which all the guards go on break simultaneously and the bad guy slips and falls in the workout room into the weight rack. The resultant falling of bars and plates HAS BEEN KNOWN to have fatal results. (Even the criminal element has certain standards in Wisconsin!)
under MN domestic abuse law, the spouse doesn't have the option to decide whether or not they want to press charges. makes me wonder how Vang got away with it...
I'm hoping he doesn't live to see his first change of clothes back from the prison laundry.
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