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| "Lifetime incapacitation is the only reliable way to protect the public from Vang's violent behavior," Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said. (MPR file photo) |
Wausau, Minn. — (AP) A Minnesota man deserves the maximum punishment for the "wholesale slaughter" of six deer hunters and the wounding of two others during a confrontation in the woods over trespassing in a tree stand, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said Thursday.
Unless Chai Soua Vang is locked up for the rest of his life, he would kill again, given his "explosive temperament" and lack of true remorse or regret, Lautenschlager argued in a 16-page sentencing recommendation filed in Sawyer County Circuit Court in Hayward.
"Lifetime incapacitation is the only reliable way to protect the public from Vang's violent behavior," the attorney general said.
Vang, 37, a Hmong immigrant and truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., returns to court in Sawyer County on Tuesday to be sentenced on six convictions of first-degree intentional homicide and three of attempted homicide in the Nov. 21 slayings on private hunting land south of Hayward.
The crime, on the second day of the gun deer season, rocked the northwoods - four of the victims were shot in the back and 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.
Lautenschlager recommended Judge Norman Yackel sentence Vang, a father of seven children, to six consecutive life prison terms on the murder convictions and 40 years in prison plus 20 years extended supervision on each of the attempted murder counts.
She also will ask the judge to make Vang ineligible for parole, guaranteeing he would never leave prison. Wisconsin does not have a death penalty.
Vang deserves the harshest sentence because there is no "justifiable explanation" for his conduct the day of the shootings.
"Vang's claimed belief that the victims might obtain guns or help at their cabin did not warrant the wholesale slaughter of defenseless people," the attorney general said.
"Mr. Vang acted clearly out of anger over what he perceived as disrespectful treatment," she told The Associated Press. "He deliberately and consciously chose to kill those people unfortunate enough to cross his path when his anger exploded. ... Put simply, Vang intentionally and systematically turned the Willers-Crotteau hunting property into a killing field."
Jonathan Smith, one of Vang's attorneys, declined comment on his sentencing recommendation, other than to say it will be appropriate "under the circumstances, recognizing the gravity of the situation."
Smith said he did not know whether Vang will make a statement to the judge before he is sentenced.
"I suspect it will be a difficult day for everybody, all the parties and the court included," Smith said.
Lautenschlager said representatives of most of the victims' families are expected to testify Tuesday.
A jury deliberated 3½ hours before finding Vang guilty of the nine felonies following a six-day trial in September. Tuesday's sentencing will come less than two weeks before the Nov. 19 opening of this year's nine-day deer season.
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 in an assault that had four of the victims shot in the back.
Willers and Hesebeck indicated only one shot was fired at Vang - by Hesebeck, who was already wounded and some of his friends lay mortally wounded on the ground.
Vang was convicted of killing Robert Crotteau, his son Joey Crotteau, Denny 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.
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