Re: Cha Vang, Hmong hunter shot dead in Wisconsin
Re: Cha Vang, Hmong hunter shot dead in Wisconsin
Green Bay Press Gazette:
MARINETTE Proseutors on Tuesday filed a murder charge against James Nichols, the Peshtigo man accused of killing Cha Vang on Jan. 5 in the Peshtigo Harbor Wildlife Area.
Vang, of Green Bay, died of multiple stab wounds and a shotgun blast to the head, neck and abdomen, according to Dr. Mark Witeck, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy.
Nichols, 28, made his initial appearance by video camera Tuesday afternoon, pictured on the screen wearing an orange jail uniform with both hands bandaged. During the nine-minute hearing, Marinette County Circuit Court Judge David Miron ordered Nichols be held in lieu of $500,000 and set his preliminary hearing for Feb. 14. Nichols faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, being a felon in possession of a firearm and concealing a corpse.
In filing the 14-page criminal complaint, Marinette County District Attorney Brent DeBord for the first time began providing answers as to how a random meeting between two strangers in rural swampland ended with one man dead and the other wounded on both hands.
Vang was hunting with friends Jan. 5 and was reported missing after he failed to return to the car at the scheduled time. His body was found early Jan. 6 lying on his back in a small depression with a log across his chest. Leaves and other debris including small sticks and dirt covered parts of Vang's body, including his face, according to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday. Investigators found Vang's rifle nearby, partially hidden beneath some bark.
Witeck's reports revealed that Vang was stabbed five times in the front of the neck and once in the cheek. One of the knife wounds severed Vang's jugular vein. Pellet wounds from the shotgun were found on Vang's right arm, chest, neck, head and face, as well as causing damage to the carotid artery in the neck.
Vang's body is in St. Paul, Minn., where a traditional Hmong funeral is set to begin at noon Friday and continue through Monday morning, according to **** Campbell, a Door County resident acting as the family's spokesman.
"The family is, and it sounds trite, doing as well as can be expected," Campbell said Tuesday. "They're not doing real well. There is a tremendous amount of emotion.
"There's a lot of tears that are shed
a lot of open grieving that takes place," Campbell said. "Pang (Vang's widow) has been pretty strong overall.
"There is a woman who feels very much alone with five children to take care of and trying to figure out how she's going to handle that."
Marinette County Sheriff's deputies detained Nichols after he showed up at a Marinette hospital Jan. 5 with gunshot wounds to both hands. He was held on a probation hold allegations of being a felon in possession of a firearm until investigators and prosecutors could finish their work.
Nichols allegedly first told detectives that he was hunting in rural Athelstane and was shot by an unknown person. A short time later he allegedly asked the investigator if he could talk about "hypothetical things" and started asking about self-defense. Nichols later told investigators that he was hunting in the Peshtigo Harbor area and that they should be looking for someone in the area of Hipke Road, according to the criminal complaint.
When the detective asked if that person was dead, Nichols allegedly said he had "no choice" because the other person shot at him at point-blank range after he interfered with Nichols' hunting. Nichols told police that he was trying to tell the other hunter to go somewhere else when the other hunter started speaking gibberish and shot him in the hand. Nichols said he was shot a second time as he charged the other man. Nichols said he was on the man before a third shot was fired and the other hunter choked him and tried to gouge his eyes out, the complaint said.
Detectives at the hospital noted no injuries to Nichols eyes or neck, the complaint said.
In a third interview with investigators at the hospital, Nichols allegedly said he was hunting squirrels with a shotgun and had treed and killed a squirrel when he was approached by a Hmong hunter. Nichols said he told the man to go somewhere else. Nichols said the other hunter was 50 feet away and pointed a .22-caliber rifle at him and shot him in the right hand, the complaint said.
Nichols said the other man shouted "I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you," according to the complaint.
Nichols told investigators that he ran about 40 feet and hid behind a tree before firing a "wild shot" in the direction of the other hunter before being shot in the other hand, the complaint said.
Nichols said he saw the other man manipulating his rifle and opted to charge at the shooter and wrestled the gun away from him.
Nichols told detectives that he stabbed the other hunter twice in the neck and then covered the body and kicked the rifle under the bark, the complaint said.
After the incident, Nichols went to his Peshtigo home and called his fiancée, who came over and helped bandage his hands and clean up the blood. The woman, Dacia James, then took Nichols to a Menominee, Mich., storage locker, where Nichols exchanged his shotgun for an air rifle, the complaint said. The couple then stopped at James' mother's home before making their way to the hospital where staff alerted authorities to Nichols' wounds, as required by law.
Nichols allegedly told James' mother that a Hmong shot him twice and he retaliated and killed the person, the complaint said.
Authorities searched the Michigan storage locker and allegedly found a 12-gauge shotgun hidden behind some furniture, ammunition for the shotgun and a .22-caliber bolt action rifle and .22-caliber ammo. Investigators also found blood spots on the concrete both outside and inside the storage locker, the complaint said.
Detectives also recovered a blood-stained knife from the center console of James' car, the complaint said. James told detectives that Nichols asked her to take it out of his pocket before they went into the emergency room.
Talking to the media before Nichols' hearing Tuesday, James said she didn't consider the fact that she could be helping her fiancée hide evidence.
"It wasn't like he was exactly trying to hide it," James said. "He was just really, really scared because he was on parole and he's not supposed to have (a firearm).
"He was just terrified. Honestly, he didn't know what to do. He was just scared."
James said she was shocked when she found Nichols at his Peshtigo apartment. She helped bandage his wounds and cleaned blood from his face and the floor, according to the complaint.
"I really haven't talked to him a whole lot, but he just told me that he didn't mean it
that it wasn't on purpose," James said tearfully.
James said fear prompted Nichols to provide differing versions of the events.
"I can tell you it was fear," she said. "That's all I can really say on that is fear, because he's really honestly so terrified over all of this."
If convicted on all the charges, Nichols faces life in prison for the homicide charge, plus an additional 20 years for the two additional felonies. Nichols also faces additional years 19 years if convicted as a habitual criminal.
Nichols was on parole for an unrelated 1997 burglary conviction when he allegedly killed Vang.
