Free Republic

A state appeals court dismissed a challenge from a Minnesota man sentenced to life in prison for gunning down six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin, saying his complaints are meritless. Chai Soua Vang, 38, argued his trial judge should have suppressed his statements to police and a news reporter, and challenged whether the evidence supported a guilty verdict and whether the judge properly exercised his sentencing powers. The 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled there were no grounds to challenge his conviction. Vang's own attorneys told the court he had no grounds to appeal, but Vang sent eight handwritten documents...

When deer hunter Chai Soua Vang, of St. Paul, opened fire on a large party of other hunters in northern Wisconsin in 2004, some of the people he killed, wounded and endangered were trying to save the lives of their friends and family members, according to official accounts of the melee. Five members of the party were recognized Thursday -- three posthumously -- with medals from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. The Pittsburgh-based fund carries out the instructions of the late steel mogul Andrew Carnegie to recognize and assist North American civilians who put their lives on the line to...

The man serving life prison sentences for murdering six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin in 2004 disagrees with his attorney that there are no grounds to appeal his convictions, authorities said Friday. Chai Soua Vang, 37, mailed eight pages of handwritten documents from a prison in Iowa to the state Court of Appeals responding to his attorney's conclusion about the case, deputy clerk Sheelah Guild said. The attorney, assistant state public defender Patrick Donnelly, has 30 days to respond to Vang's document before the 3rd District Court of Appeals in Wausau considers the case, Guild said. Earlier, Vang had requested...

Nearly two years after a dispute over a deer stand that left six western Wisconsin hunters dead, a new Rice Lake park dedicated to the hunters has been completed. Hunters Memorial Park will be dedicated at 1 p.m. Monday. The park, at Whitetail Drive and Linden Avenue, was built with private donations and will be given to the city of Rice Lake. North Builders Association donated labor, one of the two lots needed and some of the building materials. It also raised funds to cover other park expenses. Aspen Creek Services donated the second lot. The cost of the park...

A Minnesota truck driver serving life in prison for murdering six northern Wisconsin deer hunters last fall is no longer a suspect in the unsolved slaying of a deer hunter in Clark County four years ago, an investigator said Tuesday. Chai Soua Vang was working as a truck driver in the Twin Cities on the day James Southworth was shot, said Kerry Kirn, a detective with the Clark County Sheriff's Department. Southworth, 37, of Medford, was shot twice in the back near his tree stand on family land near Neillsville on Nov. 23, 2001, during the nine-day deer hunting season....

When Tong Yang goes hunting, he's looking for fun - not for trouble. Yang has spent many an evening this fall perched in a tree stand, hoping a trophy buck would come within range of his crossbow. When does pass below, as a pair did during an outing in the woods here last week, he's not interested. "Just be patient for another time," he said. "The trophy (bucks) are very smart. ... That's how they get to be a trophy buck." As Minnesota's firearms deer season draws near, Yang and many other hunters who are Hmong say they have no...

Chai Vang's sentencing in the killings of six fellow hunters is scheduled for Nov. 8. I agree with his mother's comment, "All of this could have been prevented if we could only learn to respect one another." Her plea for respect should motivate us to develop a constructive land use ethic for the North Woods. The assistant attorney general gave us a clue to needed changes in his opening remarks at the trial. He described and justified the hunters' response to Mr. Vang's trespassing as "natural." Many readers will not have any trouble with this remark. I do! Such a...

A psychiatrist says Chai Soua Vang had a history of suicidal and homicidal thoughts dating back two decades or more. Psychiatrist Robert Rawski examined Vang before the St. Paul man went on trial for the fatal shootings of six Wisconsin deer hunters. In the report -- obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- Rawski also says Vang believed the voice of an "evil shaman'' has spoken to him occasionally since 1995.

No physical evidence links the unsolved slaying of a deer hunter four years ago to a Minnesota man convicted of killing six northern Wisconsin deer hunters last fall, Clark County Sheriff Louis Rosandich said Friday. It will likely take a confession to solve the slaying, he said. Chai Soua Vang, a 36-year-old Minnesota truck driver, is considered a "person of interest'' in Jim Southworth's death, based on some similarities to the murders that Vang was convicted of last week in Sawyer County, Rosandich said. Clark County investigators have not talked to Vang but want to ask him where he was...

A Minnesota man convicted of killing six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin's Sawyer County last fall is considered a "person of interest'' in the investigation into an unsolved slaying of a hunter in Clark County four years ago, a detective says. Detective Kerry Kirn of the Clark County Sheriff's Department said Thursday that he plans to ask Chai Soua Vang where he was on Nov. 23, 2001, when Jim Southworth was shot twice in the back near his tree stand on family land east of Neillsville in central Wisconsin. A jury in Circuit Court in Hayward found Vang, 36, of...

In an emotional end to the trial of Chai Soua Vang, he testified this afternoon that three of the hunters he killed deserved to die. Vang, charged with killing six hunters and wounding two others in a confrontation over trespassing last November, testified that two of the hunters deserved to die because they called him names. "Why did Mr. [Robert] Crotteau deserve to die?" asked Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlauger, the lead prosecutor. "Because he was the one who confronted me and called me names, and that's who he is," said Vang, 36, of St. Paul.

The prosecution rested this morning in the trial of Chai Soua Vang in the deaths of six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin last November, and Vang reaffirmed his intention to testify in his defense this afternoon. The 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul had tears running down his cheeks as he spoke quietly to his family after court recessed for lunch. A family member said the discussion was a private matter and family members may make a statement after Vang's testimony today. The state's final witness was a medical examiner who testified about details of the autopsies performed on three...

The hunter who angrily swore at Chia Soua Vang during a confrontation over trespassing had a small amount of alcohol in his body when Vang shot and killed him, a medical examiner testified this afternoon. Dr. Kelly Mills, assistant Ramsey County medical examiner, said that Robert Crotteau, one of six hunters killed in gunfire that erupted during the confrontation, had a blood-alcohol content roughly equivalent to the effects of one can of beer, one shot of whiskey or a glass of wine. Mills testified that she also performed autopsies on victim Allan Laski and Jessica Willers. Neither had alcohol or...

Deer hunters testified today that Chai Soua Vang wore camouflaged clothing after shooting six other hunters to death and didn't mention the fatal confrontation when he asked for directions out of the woods. Vang, of St. Paul, has said he acted in self-defense when he killed the six and wounded two others last November in rural Sawyer County, after they confronted him for trespassing. But prosecutors in his murder trial, now in its fourth day, say his self-defense claim isn't supported by the evidence or his behavior after the shootings.

A firearms expert testified in the trial of Chai Soua Vang this morning that many ammunition casings, bullets and bullet fragments found at the scene of last November's shooting were fired by the rifle police seized from Vang. William Newhouse, an expert from the Wisconsin State Crime Lab, also testified that using a telescopic sight impedes a shooter's accuracy at short range.

In a strong voice that sometimes shook with grief, deer hunter Lauren Hesebeck described today the harrowing moments last November when Chai Soua Vang shot him from almost point-blank range, and how he watched friends die on the forest floor in northern Wisconsin. Hesebeck was called to the stand this morning in the third day of the trial of Vang, 36, of St. Paul, in connection with the deaths of six fellow deer hunters. Vang watched impassively as Hesebeck described the shootings, which happened after Hesebeck's group promised to report Vang for trespassing. Hesebeck said he was at the hunting...

In a strong but sometimes shaky voice, deer hunter Lauren Hesebeck described today the harrowing moments last November when Chai Soua Vang shot him from almost point-blank range, and how he watched friends die on the forest floor in northern Wisconsin. Hesebeck was called to the stand this morning in the third day of the trial of Vang, 36, of St. Paul, in connection with the deaths of six fellow deer hunters. Vang watched impassively as Hesebeck described the fatal confrontation, which began after Vang was confronted for trespassing.

In a hushed and transfixed courtroom, Terry Willers described late this morning feeling the impact of Chai Vang's bullet as it hit him. ''In a split second, I felt a burn and felt the ripple through my body,'' said Willers, who was one of two people who survived a confrontation in the north woods of Wisconsin that left six other hunters dead. ''I went to think about moving, and I couldn't move ... the only thing I could think of was that I couldn't help anybody, so I yelled that I'd been hit. ''I felt faint and heard some ringing...

The trial of a St. Paul man accused of killing six northern Wisconsin deer hunters continued this morning with testimony from two law enforcement officers who were at the scene of the shootings last fall. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources warden Brian Knepper described how authorities used a hunting license number from a tag Chai Soua Vang was wearing on his back to identify him. One of the hunters wrote the license number down in the dirt on the hood of an all-terrain vehicle after confronting Vang for trespassing. Gerald Kotajarvi, a forensic expert from the Wisconsin state crime lab,...

Several people at or near the area where six northern Wisconsin deer hunters were gunned down last fall in a barrage of least 20 shots will testify in the trial of a Minnesota truck driver accused of murder, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said. Lautenschlager would not identify who she will call as witnesses for the prosecution when Chai Soua Vang's murder trial resumes Monday. But she indicated the witnesses would include more than just the two men who survived gunshot wounds from the Nov. 21 shootings at a Sawyer County deer camp, where 15 people had gathered. "I can't talk...