By: (AP) Transcripts of an interview and letters sent to a Chicago Tribune reporter can be used at the trial of a man accused of killing six hunters, a judge ruled.
Defense attorneys tried to have the jailhouse communications kept out of the trial, but Judge Norman Yackel said in his order Wednesday that the defendant Chai Vang knew authorities were monitoring all of his calls and letters.
Vang made one telephone call and sent two letters to reporter Colleen Mastony in March, and jail authorities copied and shared the correspondence with prosecutors.
"The state had no control over the Chicago reporter and she was clearly not an agent of the state," Yackel wrote. "The defendant was aware that his attorneys did not want him talking to the reporter. He did it anyway."
The Tribune said it would oppose attempts to get Mastony to testify. Her story has not been published.
"We resist having our reporters being witnesses when there are other ways for them to find the information," an attorney for the newspaper, Paulette Dodson, said.
Steve Kohn, Vang's attorney, said he expected Mastony to be on witness lists for the prosecution and defense. "Whether she will be called or not, I don't know," Kohn said.
Vang, 36, is accused of killing six deer hunters in Wisconsin on Nov. 21 after a confrontation over hunting on private land. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree homicide. The trial is scheduled to start in September.
According to court documents, Vang, who is a Hmong immigrant, has said he shot the hunters because they called him names and disrespected him and he claimed they "shot at me first."
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