MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports that a Sawyer County judge heard pre-trial motions, setting the stage for the September date on Chai Vang's murder trial which will be held in Hayward, Wisconsin. Vang is the Twin Cities Hmong man charged in the shooting deaths of six Wisconsin deer hunters last November, and the wounding of two others.
Defense Attorneys said the trial should be moved from Sawyer County because of extensive publicity by media in Wisconsin and in the Twin Cities. They say there have been racial overtones to the community's reaction.