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A Hmong deer hunter on trial for murder felt physically threatened by a group of white hunters who tormented him with racial insults, his attorney told jurors Saturday. But a prosecutor said Chai Soua Vang opened fire because he was angry the group disrespected him. Vang is accused of killing six deer hunters and wounding two others after a confrontation over trespassing exploded into gunfire. Vang's attorney, Steve Kohn, said Vang started shooting because he believed another hunter fired first. "You will hear him telling you that he felt he was under siege," Kohn said during the opening day of...

Was St. Paul truck driver Chai Soua Vang just plain angry when he killed six fellow deer hunters, or was he terrified into believing he must kill or die? The answer to that question, jurors learned Saturday as Vang's trial began, will determine whether he's guilty of murder or the victim of racist bullying. In an opening statement in a packed Hayward courtroom, the prosecutor and defense attorney depicted last November's killings in vastly different lights and disclosed some new details. "In the end, it was nothing more than anger," said Roy Korte, an assistant Wisconsin attorney general.

The trial of Chai Soua Vang, a St. Paul truck driver, in the deaths of six fellow deer hunters in northern Wisconsin, got underway this morning with the prosecutor's plea that the jury weigh the evidence to reject Vang’s contention that he acted in self-defense. “In the end it was nothing more than anger,” said Roy Korte, an assistant Wisconsin attorney general, in his opening statement to the jury in a packed courtroom. “Because he felt the victims --or some of them -- disrespected him and because he knew the victims -- or some of them -- intended to report...

In only three hours a jury was empaneled Thursday to hear the case against Chai Soua Vang, the St. Paul truck driver accused of murdering six fellow deer hunters and wounding two others last fall in a confrontation in northern Wisconsin. Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel, who had hoped to pick a jury in one or two days, ordered that the all-white jury of 10 women and four men be bused almost 300 miles to Hayward, Wis., and he scheduled attorneys' opening statements for Saturday. The jury, selected in Madison because of defense attorneys' concerns about heavy pretrial publicity...

Fourteen people were chosen today to serve as jurors in the trial of Chai Soua Vang, the St. Paul man accused of killing six deer hunters and wounding two others near Hayward last November. The process concluded before noon. The panel includes 10 women and four men, all white. Vang is Hmong. Two members of the panel will serve as alternates. During the course of questioning prospective jurors, the defense and prosecution each got seven strikes, allowing them to remove people from the jury pool without specific reasons.

Jury selection in the trial a 36-year-old Minnesota truck driver accused of gunning down six deer hunters in northern Wisconsin got under way today with the judge refusing to force defendant Chai Soua Vang to wear a flak jacket in court. Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel, sitting in Dane County, opened proceedings by saying security personnel wanted Vang to wear the bulletproof vest, but the judge said Vang's attorneys objected. Yackel said he would take responsibility if something happened to Vang because he was not wearing such a vest.

Ten months after shots blasted through the serenity of the northwestern Wisconsin woods, silence and anxiety still drape this community of 8,300. Still aching from the shooting deaths of six deer hunters last November, Rice Lake is bracing for the uncertainty of a murder trial, a media onslaught and the reopening of old wounds. "I think everybody wants to get this over with and get on with life," Gary Haus, an electrical lineman, said Wednesday, on the eve of jury selection for the murder trial of Chai Soua Vang.

When jury selection begins today in the murder trial of Chai Soua Vang in Wisconsin, more than just the St. Paul hunter will be facing judgment. "The entire Hmong community will be on trial, not just Chai Vang," said Vangyee Yang, the Hmong Outreach/Resettlement Coordinator at Neighborhood House in St. Paul. Vang, 36, is charged with six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder in the shooting deaths of six white hunters last November while hunting in northwestern Wisconsin. A truck driver and National Guard veteran, Vang is claiming self-defense. He says in court documents that the hunters...

A Sawyer County judge has ruled the Minnesota man accused of killing six deer hunters is mentally competent to proceed with his trial. Judge Norman Yackel issued a written ruling after reviewing a psychiatric report on Chai Vang. Defense attorneys earlier told the court they didn't plan to pursue a plea of mental disease or defect. The 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul will be tried on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide. Prosecutors say he opened fire on a hunting party in the woods near Exeland last fall after some hunters confronted him...

Court papers unsealed Friday suggest that Chai Soua Vang will claim self-defense in his trial next month on charges that he fatally shot six deer hunters and wounded two others last year. Also on Friday, Vang's Milwaukee attorneys disclosed in an interview that Vang won't pursue a plea bargain to avoid a trial and that attorneys and the judge already have made significant progress toward picking a jury from the Madison, Wis., area. Vang, 36, of St. Paul, is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 12 in Hayward on charges that he murdered six deer hunters and wounded two others...

A survivor of the Sawyer County shootings hopes a new park will inspire tougher trespassing laws. A groundbreaking for the Hunters' Memorial Park was held in Rice Lake Monday. "First of all, the community needs to see that we're making changes out of this," says Dan Rassbach, the Park Committee Chairman. "They should know that we're helping the community grow, we're helping people." The park will include a wall with the names of the six victims on it. There will also be a pavillion, playground and a basketball court. It'll cost about $210,000 to build. Almost all of the money...

HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) - Attorneys for a man accused of shooting six deer hunters to death and wounding two others in northwestern Wisconsin plan to file motions by Tuesday's deadline. One of Chai Soua Vang's attorneys, Steven Kohn, would not say what the motions will be or how many will be filed, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported in Sunday's editions.Legal experts have said likely defense motions could include reduced bail, a change of venue from Sawyer County and suppression of statements Vang made to investigators without an attorney present.Vang, of St. Paul, Minn., pleaded not guilty Dec. 29 to...

  Ask the Fox about the HenhouseDecember 2, 2004 Ann Coulter once observed that, “Most journalists are so stupid, the fact that they are also catty, lazy, vengeful and humorless is often overlooked.”  Someday (perhaps at CPAC 2005) I have to ask her if the NYT’s Fox Butterfield qualifies for a dunce cap.  If Butterfield is an example of a Pulitzer Prize winner, I’ll remain content winning at the Sunday turkey shoots. When 36-year-old Hmong warrior Chai Vang took his walkabout and murdered six Wisconsin hunters this past week, Butterfield felt compelled to let his brilliance shine anew. In a riveting NYT’s piece...

Here is an article from the NYSlimes