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Court upholds sentence in Wis. gang shooting

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) A man was properly sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in a gang-related shooting in western Wisconsin more than four years ago, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Teng Vang, 26, contended an Eau Claire County judge gave him a harsher sentence because Vang earlier won an appeals ruling that allowed him to withdraw his no-contest plea to lesser charges in the Eau Claire shooting.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals said Vang was convicted of more serious crimes in a subsequent trial, including attempted murder, and the prison sentence that added three more years to his punishment was fair. He was also ordered to serve 12 years of probation.

"The sentences are not arguably so excessive as to shock public sentiment," the panel said.

According to court records, on April 12, 2004, Vang and several other members of Ruthless Crip Gangsters drove to an Eau Claire home of a member of the rival gang Menace of Destruction. Three to five shots were fired at a man after a verbal confrontation, one shot narrowly missing his head.

One bullet hit a neighboring house, striking a couch inside where a woman was sitting, court records said.

Prosecution witnesses, including members of Vang's gang, identified Vang as the shooter, court records said.

Vang pleaded no contest to three felonies in a plea bargain that dropped the most serious charge. But he moved to withdraw the pleas just days before a judge was to sentence him, claiming that there was new evidence he wasn't the shooter.

Two years ago, the appeals court ruled that Judge Eric Wahl erred in denying Vang's request without gathering more evidence about an alleged jailhouse confession by a co-conspirator.

That led to a jury trial and Vang was convicted of being party to attempted first-degree intentional homicide, being party to three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

In the appeal settled Tuesday, the appeals court said prosecutors presented sufficient evidence to support the convictions.

"Seven witnesses identified Vang as the shooter," the panel said. "In addition, the state presented sufficient evidence that Vang was a party to the crime even if he was not the shooter."