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Prosecutors say they want Chai Vang to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole when he's sentenced in Sawyer County Court today. Thirty-seven-year-old Chai Soua Vang of St. Paul was convicted on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide in the killings last November on private hunting land south of Hayward. The hunters were shot on the second day of the gun deer season. Four of the victims were shot in the back and all but one were unarmed. Vang claims he heard racial taunts from the hunters prior...

The man accused of killing six hunters in the woods of Sawyer County last November was in court Wednesday for a motions hearing on a number of issues that have been brought to the table from both sides. After hearing testimony for about seven hours, Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel ruled the confession that Chai Vang allegedly made on the day after the incident can be used in the September trial. Judge Yackel said that Vang's statements were made voluntarily and none of his rights were violated. The judge has also decided to keep the trial in Sawyer County,...

Chai S. Vang, the St. Paul man charged with killing six deer hunters and wounding two others last fall, can get a fair trial in Sawyer County, Wis., the Wisconsin attorney general's office argued in documents filed Wednesday. The state's attorney argued against motions filed earlier by Vang's attorneys, who said that heavy publicity and negative attitudes toward nonwhites in the county would make it difficult to select an impartial jury for Vang's trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 12. "The mere fact that a case has been covered extensively in the media is not a sufficient basis to justify a...

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...

Northern Wisconsin ’s about to get some national exposure, but it’s for something that many people would probably rather forget. N-B-C’s Law and Order will be airing an episode next week called “License to Kill”. The show is loosely based on events surrounding the Sawyer County Massacre. It reportedly shows a scene with blaze-orange clad bodies lying on the ground in a wooded area. To see the trailer for the episode, log on to NBC.com.

So Peg Lautenschlager wants to take over the Chai Vang case. We wish the Wisconsin attorney general good luck. She'll need it. We're inclined to agree with the cynics who think this is more about politics than prosecutorial discretion. After all, it's certainly no coincidence that Lautenschlager will be up for re-election in 2006. It's also important to note that Lautenschlager is trying to live down a DWI conviction. Adding insult to injury, she was in a state-owned vehicle earlier this year when she was pulled over and refused to submit to a sobriety test. Clearly, a victory in the...

MADISON, WIS. -- Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said Monday that she plans to seek reelection to a second term in 2006 and will personally prosecute the case against Chai Vang, the St. Paul man accused of killing six hunters and wounding two others. {snip} She said she would handle Vang's preliminary hearing Wednesday. Vang faces six counts of murder in the Nov. 21 shootings in Sawyer County. {snip} She said she wants to prosecute Vang because of her "personal interest" in cases that involve crimes against people. She last prosecuted a case of a kidnapper of a 12-year-old girl in...

The man accused of killing six deer hunters in northwestern Wisconsin has another a court appointment this week in Hayward. Chai Soua Vang, from St. Paul, Minnesota, faces six counts of murder in the November 21st shootings, which started after a dispute over a tree stand on private property in southern Sawyer County. Six Rice Lake area residents were killed and two wounded in the shooting spree. Vang was not wounded. Vang's preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday to determine if there is enough evidence for a trial. The 36-year-old remains in the Sawyer County jail on a two-point-five (m)...

MADISON (AP) -- Hmong leaders pleaded for more help from the state to educate Hmong hunters on regulations, as they brainstormed Tuesday on ways to defuse racial tension and help their people earn respect in the aftermath of the North Woods slayings. The session was held a week after Chai Soua Vang, 36, from St. Paul, Minn., was charged with shooting six white hunters to death and wounding two others Nov. 21 after Vang trespassed on their land in Sawyer County. Kou Xiong, the state Department of Natural Resources Hmong liaison, told a group appointed by Gov. Jim Doyle to...

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - A collection for the families of the six hunters murdered in Northwestern Wisconsin has raised more than $160,000 from around the world. "It's heartwarming to see how people care," said Tim Jubie, chief operating officer for Link Brothers Ford Lincoln Mercury, where one of the victims worked as a salesman. Chai Soua Vang of St. Paul was charged with killing six Rice Lake area hunters Nov. 21 after a dispute over a tree stand on private land in Sawyer County. A fund was set up for the victims' families at Dairy State Bank on Nov. 24....

As a child born in America to Hmong immigrants, the role of mediator between my elders and what they discovered here fell heavily upon me. Lately, as I read of a Hmong man accused of shooting and killing six hunters in Wisconsin, I feel the bridges I have built over a lifetime to connect a past world to this one crumbling under national scrutiny. When I was a child, I would have to remind my grandmothers to pick up the telephone receiver before dialing. It was my generation, born into the world of telephones, raised by those who lived in...

When Chai Soua Vang allegedly opened fire on hunters who confronted him about trespassing near Rice Lake, Wis., another Wisconsin county had a warrant for his arrest for trespassing while hunting in 2002 and failing to pay the fine. ...may have known he stood to be arrested if the hunters who confronted him that day called the sheriff's office. ...In Minnesota's Kanabec County, where Vang bought 40 acres of land last year for hunting, Vang or a member of his hunting party was ordered off a neighbor's land on Nov. 6 this year, opening day of Minnesota's deer hunting season....

Years of racism and hatred directed at the Hmong? Behind the Wisconsin shootings By Elizabeth Schulte | December 3, 2004 | Page 2 BREWING RACIAL tensions reached the boiling point in late November when a Hmong-American shot and killed six white hunters in Wisconsin's North Woods. Chai Vang, a 36-year-old Hmong-American, was hunting on November 21 when he was approached by white hunters who told him that he was on private property. Vang told police that after he climbed down from the hunting platform, the men surrounded him and spewed racial epithets like ?gook, chink and fucking Asian? at him....

MINNEAPOLIS - Whether he was acting in self-defense, suffering from mental illness or consumed by rage when he shot eight hunters in the Wisconsin woods, Chai Soua Vang faces an awfully difficult task in mounting a defense, legal experts say. "His attorneys acknowledge him doing it. He admits doing it. And he admits in his confession (to) chasing down one of these guys and shooting him in the back," said Ron Meshbesher, a prominent Minneapolis defense attorney. "It'd be a miracle if he beat this rap." Vang, 36, made his first appearance before a judge Tuesday in Hayward, Wis. He...

RICE LAKE, Wis. - Two survivors of a deer-hunting confrontation that killed six of their friends joined hundreds of people at a community service that included prayers for both comfort and forgiveness. Lauren Hesebeck and Terry Willers sat near each other at the Tuesday night prayer service organized by area ministers who urged people to find comfort in the Lord and avoid falling into fear and prejudice in the wake of the shootings blamed on a Hmong immigrant. "Community support is great," Hesebeck told a reporter, a blaze orange ribbon pinned to his jacket in memory of his hunting buddies....

ST. PAUL - The man charged with murdering six hunters and wounding two others in Northwestern Wisconsin last week is a Hmong shaman who has called on the spirit world in trances that last up to three hours, his family and friends say. The accused, Chai Soua Vang of St. Paul, seeks "the other world" when he tries to cure sick people or invoke divine protection for those who request it, said Ber Xiong, his friend and former hunting companion. "He is a special person," Xiong said. "Chai speaks to the other side. He asks the spirits there to release...

The shootings of eight deer hunters -- the murders of six -- is receiving a lot of attention statewide and in Minnesota, where the shooting suspect is from. Chai Vang's defense attorneys are quiet familiar with the kind of media attention this case is getting. One was part of Mark Chmura's defense team; another represented the man who killed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in prison. Attorney Steven Kohn said, "We're not looking for the focus to be on us." "There's an old saying in sports: When you've been there before, act like you've been there before," Kohn said. Kohn has...

Homicide charges were filed Monday afternoon against the St. Paul, Minnesota, man accused of fatally shooting six hunters and wounding two others in Sawyer County. The criminal complaint filed with the court offers new details about the crimes. Vang is charged with six counts of first-degree intentional homicide by use of a dangerous weapon and two counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the November 21st shooting rampage. The criminal complaint filed Monday afternoon in Sawyer County court says the two surviving hunters told investigators that no one in their hunting group pointed a gun at Chai Vang before he...

Some of the victims' relatives (boys/young men)will be guests at the Packer game tonight at Lambeau Field. A tribute or memorial may be given. They are asking attendees of the game to wear blaze orange in rememberance of the fallen hunters. (This time of year almost everyone wears orange to Packer games anyway.) You may want to watch Monday Night Football starting at the top of the hour.

DOBIE, Wis., Nov. 27 - The two gatherings, less than 200 miles apart, seemed to be separated by whole worlds. In this isolated village deep in the pine and cedar woods of the Upper Midwest, mourners trudged through falling snow on Friday to Our Lady of Lourdes Church to remember one of six hunters, all locals, killed near here a week ago. To the southwest, across the state line in Minnesota, thousands of Hmong immigrants streamed into a downtown St. Paul auditorium for three days of New Year's festivities with papaya salad, traditional courtship games and young women in dresses...