Posted on 11/08/2005 4:32:23 PM PST by VU4G10
HAYWARD, Wis. - A Hmong immigrant convicted of murdering six deer hunters and attempting to kill two others after a trespassing dispute was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday with no chance for parole.
Judge Norman Yackel ordered Chai Soua Vang, 37, to serve six life prison terms, one after the other, guaranteeing he would never be freed from prison. Wisconsin does not have a death penalty.
Yackel described Vang as a "time bomb ready to go off" at the slightest provocation.
"These crimes are not isolated acts, but a pattern of anti-social conduct," the judge said.
Vang, a truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., was convicted on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide in the Nov. 21 slayings.
The homicide charges carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison, but Yackel could have set a parole eligibility date for Vang. The judge also sentenced Vang to three concurrent terms of 40 years in prison on the attempted homicide charges.
The slayings occurred during the state's beloved deer hunting season and exposed racial tension between the predominantly white north woods residents and immigrants from the Hmong ethnic group.
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager sought the maximum sentence for Vang, a father of seven children. She argued Vang would kill again unless he was locked up for the rest of his life, given his "explosive temperament" and lack of true remorse or regret.
Vang addressed the victims' families in court Tuesday but did not apologize.
"I understand your anger, your frustration, your grief," he said.
According to trial testimony, Vang said he got lost, went into a tree stand on the private land and was asked by another hunter, Terry Willers, to leave. Vang said he apologized and started walking away.
Other companions of Willers arrived, and there was an angry verbal confrontation and threats to report Vang to game wardens for trespassing.
Vang testified he fired in self-defense after one hunter angrily shouted profanities at him and used racial slurs before another fired at him.
Willers and the other wounded hunter, Lauren Hesebeck, said no one in their group pointed a gun at Vang before he opened fire.
Willers and Hesebeck indicated only one shot was fired at Vang — by Hesebeck, who was already wounded and some of his friends lay mortally wounded on the ground.
Vang was convicted of killing Robert Crotteau, his son Joey Crotteau, Denny Drew, Allan Laski, Jessica Willers and Mark Roidt. All were relatives and friends who gathered to hunt from the Crotteaus' cabin near Exeland.
And the bodies were found laying HUNDREDS of yards between another --they had been running away from him, with him running in pursuit, killing them one by one.
He'll be out in 10 years.
Does Wisconsin have the death penalty?
I mean, she had such suprememe confidence that you would have thought of the Hmong community at large as being the aggrieved party, instead of these butchered others.
"One of our number has murdered, but many of us are anxious, ergo things balance."
Hell no. It was abolished way back in 1853.
Vang is lucky he didn't do this in Texas. He'd be gone. (After the usual appeals, stalls and candlelight vigils by all the bleeding heart "liberals", the ACLU and Hollywood weenies and millions of dollars of wasted taxpayers public funds and money.
Here's to hoping justice is truly served when he's locked up.
Tired of playing patty cake with evil.
Six people got death, and their killer gets life. That is not Texas justice, thank God.
Pretty good evidence...this wasn't the guy's first murder either.
FWIW-
A (an) Hmong SLIT his own throat this weekend at the SEATTLE CENTER!! Geesh.
Why don't they juice this savage????
Why don't they juice this savage????
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