Article just posted on the Star Tribune (Please know that by posting this, I'm not posting it to point out that Mr. Crotteau had a tiny amount of alcohol in his system - I believe it's irrelevant to the case... just posting because it has more information about what has been said in court so far today, and the alcohol part just happens to be the first thing mentioned in the article)
FULL STORY:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5614341.html
(Once you click on the link, there are 2 pages to the story)
Here is part of it:
HAYWARD, WIS. -- The hunter who angrily swore at Chia Soua Vang during a confrontation over trespassing had a small amount of alcohol in his body when Vang shot and killed him, a medical examiner testified this afternoon.
Dr. Kelly Mills, assistant Ramsey County medical examiner, said that Robert Crotteau, one of six hunters killed in gunfire that erupted during the confrontation, had a blood-alcohol content roughly equivalent to the effects of one can of beer, one shot of whiskey or a glass of wine.
Mills testified that she also performed autopsies on victim Allan Laski and Jessica Willers. Neither had alcohol or drugs in his or her system, she said. She testified that all three died of gunshot wounds. Crotteau was shot in the back and the bullet destroyed his heart and passed through several other organs, she testified.
"He would have died in a matter of seconds a minute at the most," she said.
Mills testified that Laski was shot three times, all in the back. The fatal wound went through his heart, she said. Another bullet severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him from the waist down, she testified.
She testified that Willers was shot twice in the back. The fatal bullet went through Willers left lung, her neck and her brain before lodging in the back of her skull. Mills said the other wound was in Willers left buttock, upper thigh and abdomen, at an angle indicating that her knee had been bent.
Mills said others in her office performed autopsies on the other three victims. Their autopsies have not been detailed yet this afternoon.
Deer hunters testified earlier today that Vang wore camouflaged clothing after shooting the six hunters to death and didn't mention the fatal confrontation when he asked for directions out of the woods.
Vang, of St. Paul, has said he acted in self-defense when he killed the six and wounded two others last November in rural Sawyer County, after they confronted him for trespassing. But prosecutors in his murder trial, now in its fourth day, say his self-defense claim isn't supported by the evidence or his behavior after the shootings.
Prosecution witness Daryl Gass of New Auburn, Wis., testified late this morning that he was hunting out of a tree stand on public land 300 to 500 yards south of the shootings. He said he heard about 15 shots from that direction over about 10 minutes, and he assumed hunters had jumped an unusually large number of deer.
Gass said that about a half hour after the shooting stopped he saw a strange sight: A man walking toward him, carrying a rifle and dressed illegally in camouflaged clothing rather than blaze orange. He said he could see that the man, whom he identified in court as Chai Vang, wore a reversible jacket, with the blaze-orange side in.
"He said he was lost and needed help finding his way," Gass testified. "He was very polite but he seemed a little nervous. I assumed it was because he was lost."
Gass testified that he gave Vang directions to a logging road and told him he could follow that to a better-traveled road where he could get more help or catch a ride. He said Vang thanked him and walked quickly in the direction Gass advised. Gass then radioed his son to warn him that a camouflaged hunter was walking his way. He said he didn't want his son to mistake Vang for a deer.
The son, Eric Gass, 19, testified that he watched from his tree stand as Vang made it to the trail to which Gass's father had directed him, but walked only a few feet down it before heading back into the woods, continuing south, away from the shooting scene.
"He was walking at a pretty good pace," the younger Gass testified. Both father and son testified that about a half hour after they encountered Vang, a man drove hurriedly up on an ATV and warned them that someone had gone crazy and was shooting hunters in the area.
