Charges in Wisconsin hunter's death leave questions about motive unanswered

Wednesday, January 17th 2007, 6:13 am

By: News On 6

MARINETTE, Wis. (AP) _ More than two years after a Hmong deer hunter killed six white men in the Wisconsin woods, a white hunter was charged with slaying a member of the same ethnic group.

District Attorney Brent DeBord gave no motive for the latest killing, which the victim's family said appeared to be racially motivated. The white hunter, James Nichols, has claimed self-defense.

``It was a horrendous crime,'' said Dick Campbell, a spokesman for the victim's family. ``I know there are many people in the Hmong community and the community at large that are wondering if this is a hate crime. I'm wondering that myself.''

Nichols, 28, was charged Tuesday with first-degree intentional homicide while armed, hiding a corpse and being a felon in possession of a firearm. DeBord said the investigation is continuing into whether more charges should be filed.

The body of the victim, Cha Vang, 30, was found Jan. 6 in a wildlife refuge near Green Bay where both he and Nichols were hunting squirrels, authorities said.

Among the other unanswered questions: How the defendant came to be shot in both hands, and how a 3- to 4-inch wooden stick became clenched in Vang's teeth, protruding into his throat.

In the criminal complaint, Nichols is quoted as saying he shot and stabbed Vang in self-defense. But he also told authorities the ``Hmong group are bad,'' and that Hmong people are mean and ``kill everything and that they go for anything that moves.''

The shooting has rekindled racial tensions in the state's hunting grounds that surfaced in Sawyer County in November 2004, when a Hmong deer hunter shot six white hunters to death after being accused of trespassing. He said the whites shouted racial epithets at him and shot first, but survivors testified he opened fire on the group. He is serving multiple life sentences.

About 200,000 members of the Hmong ethnic minority group fled Laos for the United States, settling primarily in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Searchers found Vang's body Jan. 6, covered with leaves and other debris. Members of his hunting party reported him missing the evening before _ at almost the same time Nichols and his fiancee went to a medical center to have his wounded hands treated.

Alerted by medical personnel, deputies began interviewing Nichols and later held him for violating his probation on past burglary charges by having a firearm.

An autopsy indicated Vang was hit by a shotgun blast to the head and torso and stabbed six times. He also had the wooden stick in his clenched teeth, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, Nichols gave several versions of what happened. At one point, he told an investigator that Vang hollered, ``I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you.''

But Vang's wife, Pang Vue, has said the family came to the U.S. two years ago and he spoke no English. The complaint quotes Nichols as saying in another interview that Vang was talking what he considered gibberish as Nichols tried to get him to hunt somewhere else.

Nichols' public defender Kent Hoffmann said the charges were just allegations and he reserved the right to challenge the sufficiency of the complaint. His client faces up to life in prison plus 39 years and a $50,000 fine if convicted.

Nichols' 20-year-old fiancee, Dacia James, said she believes it was an act of self-defense, and she's never heard Nichols say negative things about Hmong people in the five years she's known him.

``I can't believe he would say that. He has never been racist or derogatory against someone who didn't deserve it,'' she said.