Jury Finds Deer Hunter Guilty in Six Deaths

Chai Soua Vang, who this week told jurors how he chased down a hunting party in a horrific shooting spree last fall, was found guilty Friday of murdering six people and trying to kill two others.

After about three hours of deliberations, the jury rejected arguments by Vang’s attorneys that the 36-year-old National Guard veteran was defending himself after one hunter screamed racial slurs and another shot at him.

The four-man, eight-woman jury in Sawyer County convicted Vang of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide involving the use of a dangerous weapon, and three counts of first-degree attempted murder.

First-degree homicide has a mandatory life sentence, said Wisconsin Atty. Gen. Peg Lautenschlager.

Though two of the hunters survived, prosecutors had charged Vang with three counts of attempted homicide because he had attacked one man twice.

The killings occurred during the opening weekend of deer season last November, when Vang accidentally trespassed on private property in the township of Meteor, Wis.

The slain hunters all grew up or lived in nearby Rice Lake, a tight-knit community of 8,300 where hunting is a popular tradition.

Vang told jurors this week that after the hunters confronted him, he felt threatened and believed he needed to protect himself. He said he attacked them out of self-defense, even as they ran for cover and screamed for help.

Vang testified Thursday that property owner Robert Crotteau, 42, deserved to die because he called Vang names; Crotteau’s son Joseph, 20, because he accused Vang of “giving him the finger”; and Allan Laski, 43, because “he had a gun.”

The other three slaying victims were Mark Roidt, 28, and Dennis Drew, 55, of Rice Lake; and Jessica Willers, 27, of Green Bay. Jessica’s father, Terry, 48, and Lauren Hesebeck, 49, were wounded. Hesebeck was attacked twice.

As the verdicts were read, Vang sat staring straight ahead as he listened to jurors reject his claims of self-defense.

Inside the small courtroom, about a dozen of Vang’s relatives and friends squeezed onto the two wooden benches behind the defense table.

They clung to one another. A woman buried her head in the shoulder of a young man to muffle her sobs.

Across the aisle, about 50 friends and relatives of the victims sat behind the prosecution. As each count was read, some of them cried and shared boxes of tissue.

A crucial question was whether Vang fired his semiautomatic rifle at the hunting party first, or whether he had been fired upon.

The two survivors testified that after the verbal exchange, Vang was walking away when he turned, pulled the scope off his weapon and began to fire.

Vang testified that one of the hunters shot at him first.

During approximately two hours of closing arguments Friday, defense attorney Steve Kohn accused the two survivors of perjury and asked the jury to see the setting from Vang’s perspective.

Here was a man, barely 5 feet tall, who was lost and confused in the forest, Kohn said, and Robert Crotteau screaming at Vang some of “the most foul, shameful, disgusting things one human being can say to another.”

Lautenschlager countered that while such language was insulting, it couldn’t justify Vang’s spree.

“This case wasn’t about self-defense,” Lautenschlager said.

“This case was about an individual who, perhaps rightly so, believed that he was disrespected.”

Vang, a naturalized citizen from Laos who came to the United States in 1980, said he was trained as a medical specialist by the military and earned honors as a sharpshooter. He had hunted regularly in Minnesota, California and Wisconsin since first obtaining a hunting license in 1990.

The shootings shocked people throughout Wisconsin, particularly in the north, where outdoor sports such as hunting are an integral part of region’s fabric.

Several cars parked outside the courthouse had bright orange, ribbon-shaped bumper stickers that read “Rice Lake Area Hunters and Survivors: Some gone, None forgotten.”

As this year’s deer season approaches, some residents said they were relieved that the trial had concluded, but worried about how the ruling would affect the area’s hunting culture.

“Last year was my son’s first hunt, and to have such a tragedy happen on such a traditional weekend was horrifying,” said Mike Mohr, 44, of Superior, Wis. “It can’t help but change how people hunt. We’ll be much more cautious of strangers. It’s not worth taking the chance to talk to them.”

The jury was drawn from Dane County, hundreds of miles to the south, after the defense team expressed concern that pretrial media coverage might have tainted the local potential jury pool.

Outside the courthouse, some of Vang’s family maintained his innocence and raged about the jury’s lack of minorities, despite assurances from Kohn that selection of the all-white panel had been fair.

“What are we to do without my father?” asked Kia Vang, his daughter.

“Who’s going to raise my brothers and sisters?”

Vang’s sister, Chou, blamed the victims and insisted that the tragedy was rooted in racism.

“He was not a dog to stand there, to have them chew on him,” said Chou Vang, who added she was “glad” her brother had defended himself.

Inside the courtroom, victims’ relatives expressed gratitude for the jury’s decision.

Heather Kretz, Drew’s daughter, said she understood and sympathized with the Vangs’ pain.

“We understand the loss of a family member, whether through incarceration or death,” Kretz said. “Every day, we miss our dad.”