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After 10 hours, jury finds Thao guilty in La Crosse County triple murder
Nya Thao was found guilty Tuesday of three murders committed at a quarry near West Salem back in 2021.
A La Crosse County jury announced its verdict around 5 p.m., after about 10 hours of deliberation over two days.
This was Thao’s second trial in the shooting deaths of Peng Lor, Nemo Yang, and Trevor Maloney. The first trial in June of 2023 ended with the jury deadlocked on a verdict.
The 37-year-old Thao was convicted on three counts of first-degree homicide, as a party to a crime, and a fourth charge of felony possession of a firearm.
A second suspect, Kham Rattanasack, reached a guilty plea on murder charges in October of 2023, and is now serving prison time.
Thao’s defense attorney, Aaron Nelson, had argued that Thao did not have a motive for the shootings, and that the evidence pointed to Rattanasack.
Investigators said Rattanasack gave Thao a gun and told him to shoot the men, because of a dispute over a $600 debt.
Rattanasack testified at the first trial, but not at this trial.
Judge Elliott Levine says sentencing for Thao is expected in the next month or two.