Man serving life sentence for 2004 Wisconsin hunter killings has died

A man serving a life sentence in a Wisconsin prison for killing six hunters during a confrontation over trespassing in 2004 has died, officials said.

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections said 57-year-old Chai Vang died Wednesday at a hospital. The department gave no cause of death, citing privacy laws. 

A jury found Vang guilty of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide in 2005, triggering a mandatory life sentence, which he was serving at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution.

According to testimony, a group of hunters confronted Vang when they found him trespassing in a tree stand on private property in Wisconsin's northwestern woods on Nov. 21, 2004. Two survivors of the shooting said their group never shot at Vang before he fired at them.

Vang, a Hmong immigrant who lived in St. Paul and was a father of six, told investigators he got lost chasing a deer and climbed into the tree stand, not knowing it was on private property. He alleged the group of White hunters targeted him with racial slurs and shot first, which the survivors denied.

The victims were 42-year-old Robert Crotteau, 20-year-old Joey Crotteau, 43-year-old Al Laski, 28-year-old Mark Roidt and 27-year-old Jessica Willers.