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Psychologists meet with hunter shooting suspect
By TOM HELD
theld@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 29, 2004
Hayward - Chai Soua Vang has met with two forensic psychologists who will help determine whether he suffered from a mental defect when he shot and killed six deer hunters in Sawyer County last month, his attorneys revealed after a court appearance Wednesday.
48091North Woods Shootings
The Suspect
Chai Soua Vang
Photo/Dale Guldan
Chai Soua Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn., appears in court last month.
Vang, 36, entered pleas of not guilty to six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide in a brief appearance before Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel. The plea could be amended to not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect as the case proceeds to a trial, now set to begin Sept. 12.
Vang's attorneys, Jonathan Smith and Steve Kohn, of Milwaukee, said they had begun looking at the suspect's mental health as a possible defense but had not decided whether to follow that course. To assess Vang's mental status, they arranged interviews with Kenneth Smail of Milwaukee and Paul Reitman of Minneapolis.
The attorneys declined to reveal any details of the psychologists' findings.
Vang walked into the courtroom earlyWednesday with no expression, even as he passed in front of Terry Willers, one of the survivors of the shooting rampage on Nov. 21 and the first member of the ill-fated hunting party Vang encountered that day.
Willers sat next to his wife and other family members in the front row of the courtroom, and he also showed no emotion as Vang passed him.
The defense team chose to waive the preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday, essentially acknowledging that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to move the case to trial. The testimony was expected to include a pathologist citing the cause of death for the six victims and a recitation of the statement Vang gave to a Sawyer County sheriff's investigator after the shooting.
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By TOM HELD
theld@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 29, 2004
Hayward - Chai Soua Vang has met with two forensic psychologists who will help determine whether he suffered from a mental defect when he shot and killed six deer hunters in Sawyer County last month, his attorneys revealed after a court appearance Wednesday.
48091North Woods Shootings
The Suspect
Chai Soua Vang
Photo/Dale Guldan
Chai Soua Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn., appears in court last month.
Vang, 36, entered pleas of not guilty to six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide in a brief appearance before Sawyer County Circuit Judge Norman Yackel. The plea could be amended to not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect as the case proceeds to a trial, now set to begin Sept. 12.
Vang's attorneys, Jonathan Smith and Steve Kohn, of Milwaukee, said they had begun looking at the suspect's mental health as a possible defense but had not decided whether to follow that course. To assess Vang's mental status, they arranged interviews with Kenneth Smail of Milwaukee and Paul Reitman of Minneapolis.
The attorneys declined to reveal any details of the psychologists' findings.
Vang walked into the courtroom earlyWednesday with no expression, even as he passed in front of Terry Willers, one of the survivors of the shooting rampage on Nov. 21 and the first member of the ill-fated hunting party Vang encountered that day.
Willers sat next to his wife and other family members in the front row of the courtroom, and he also showed no emotion as Vang passed him.
The defense team chose to waive the preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday, essentially acknowledging that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to move the case to trial. The testimony was expected to include a pathologist citing the cause of death for the six victims and a recitation of the statement Vang gave to a Sawyer County sheriff's investigator after the shooting.
source