Posted on 11/09/2005 1:54:45 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
HAYWARD, WI - A man convicted of murdering six deer hunters and attempting to kill two others after a dispute over trespassing in northwestern Wisconsin was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday with no chance for parole.
Judge Norman Yackel sentenced Chai Soua Vang to the maximum punishment he faced. The judge ordered Vang, 37, to serve six life prison terms, one after the other, guaranteeing he would never be freed from prison.
Vang addressed the victims' families in court Tuesday but did not apologize.
"I understand your anger, your frustration, your grief," said Vang, a father of seven.
He called Tuesday the happiest day of his life, saying he would no longer have to deal with things such as child support and mortgage payments.
"I wish I can change things, but I cannot," he told a packed Sawyer County courtroom.
Bruce Crotteau, a brother to one slain hunter and an uncle to another, called Vang a coward who sentenced the victims' families to a lifetime of horrible memories.
"There is no punishment that Chai Vang can ever receive that will justify what he has taken away," Crotteau said in court.
During the trial, Vang, who is Hmong, testified he shot at the white hunters in self-defense after one angrily shouted profanities at him and used racial slurs, and another fired at him after they found him on their private hunting land south of Hayward on Nov. 21.
But a jury agreed with prosecutors that Vang gunned down the hunters in a rampage. Vang, a truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., was convicted Sept. 16 of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide.
The homicide charges carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Wisconsin does not have a death penalty.
Yackel, who could have set a parole eligibility date for Vang, described Vang as a "time bomb ready to go off" at the slightest provocation. The judge also sentenced Vang to three concurrent terms of 40 years in prison on the attempted homicide charges.
Vang's attorney, Steve Kohn, said Vang would appeal but declined to elaborate on what grounds.
The murders, on the second day of the gun deer season, rocked the northwoods - four of the victims were shot in the back, two as they tried to run away and two as they rode on an all-terrain vehicle to help. All but one were unarmed.
The slayings also exposed racial tension between the predominantly white northwoods and Hmong people who have immigrated to the Midwest.
During his sentencing hearing, Vang urged people to learn something from the tragedy.
"My life is over. But all of you out there have your life, and your journey continues. I hope all of you learn something from this tragedy, treat one another better," Vang said.
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager sought the maximum sentence for Vang, arguing 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.
"The victims in this case, excuse me, have gone through hell and back," Lautenschlager said Tuesday. "Today is the day that hopefully life in the northwoods gets back to normal."
One victim's daughter, Heather Drew Kretz, showed a photo of her father Denny Drew that was taken on her wedding day in June 2004. She said in court the slayings left her with feelings of emptiness.
"There truly aren't words to show how I loved my dad," Kretz 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 the white hunters used racial slurs and profanity before Willers fired the first shot as Vang walked away.
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, as some of his friends lay mortally wounded on the ground.
Vang was convicted of killing Robert Crotteau, his son Joey Crotteau, Drew, Allan Laski, Jessica Willers and Mark Roidt, all from the Rice Lake area. All were relatives and friends who gathered to hunt from the Crotteaus' cabin near Exeland.
Actually, it was beaten to death with a broom which even for prison seems a bit unnatural... ;)
Six consecutive death sentences would have been more appropriate.
Whatever. He just needs killing.
He will be punked out immediately, and sodomized every day until they have no further use for him, at which time they will bash his head against a urinal till he cacks.
Yeah, "HONOR", whatever.
Pitiful.
True. All he has to worry about now is what the Nation does with him in the showers etc.
No, no, my friend! On the contrary, it is just beginning!
Prison is full of randy, lonely men, and you are about to get a PhD in the arts of sucking d***!
Agreed.
Real quick, the Hmong were a tribal group in Laos who, ironically, assisted the U.S. during the Vietnam War. You might google their putative chieftain, General Vang Pao. After the failure of our fight against communism in Southeast Asia in 1975, thousands of Hmong tribespeople were evacd to the U.S. (a better fate than many more thousands of Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam, who fought valiantly on our side and were left in the lurch and suffer horribly to this day).
The Hmong in the U.S. are woefully unassimilated and live mainly on the dole. But this convicted murderer thinks he knows our dysfunctional legal system better than we do.
Vang thinks that at least he will die of old age.
Whatever yourself. You're the one who called a firing squad honorable.
NO it's not. Not for civilians.
"he's a hothead and a jackass. His life term will be short."
I agree. It won't take long.
A bit of irony: Steve Kohn, Vang's lead attorney, also represented Christopher Scarver in this case. Maybe Kohn can put the word out that he'll represent anybody who kills Vang, because this case hasn't exactly made Kohn look like a genius, even though he never had a chance to begin with.
Compared to what Dahmer did to his victims, being beaten to death with a blunt object and being left alone after being killed is decidedly natural.
four of the victims were shot in the back, two as they tried to run away and two as they rode on an all-terrain vehicle to help. All but one were unarmed.
All but one were UNARMED...we can learn something here.
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