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Kou Thao received the maximum sentence for second-degree intentional homicide on January 21, 2015, in the shooting death of Tong Pao Hang, whose remains police found in a car trunk and a Milwaukee basement.

Thao, 26 at the time of his arrest, lived in Wausau, Wisconsin. Hang, 58, of St. Paul, Minnesota, was the boyfriend of the aunt of Thao's brother-in-law. Prosecutors said the men had met only days before the shooting. Reports of the criminal complaint listed Thao's prior convictions for possession of methamphetamine, battery and retail theft. At sentencing, a prosecutor described a pattern of criminal behavior and violence going back to 2002.

According to the complaint, Thao brought Hang to a Wausau home on April 6, 2013, to drink in the basement. Thao's brother-in-law told police he was smoking outside when he heard a gunshot. Downstairs, he saw Thao and a man on the floor in blood. He said he helped Thao wrap the body in a tarp and load it into Thao's Honda Accord because he feared Thao would shoot him otherwise. Thao cleaned the blood with bleach, drove off and told him not to say anything. On April 17, 2013, the brother-in-law told Wausau police Thao had shot Hang after an officer came to the home on a missing-person call.

On Thursday, April 18, Milwaukee police went to a North 38th Street home where the Accord was parked. Thao ran out the back door when officers knocked and was quickly caught. Officers found a bucket in the trunk holding Hang's severed head, with a gunshot wound between the eyes. Other body parts were in the home's basement. Thao first denied killing Hang, then admitted it after his arrest, saying Hang was a child molester. The complaint says he told detectives he shot Hang, took the body to Milwaukee, cut it into pieces and hid some in the basement with a knife and the tarp. Shown a basement photo, he pointed out the cushions covering the remains.

On Monday, April 22, 2013, Thao was held on $1 million cash bond on charges of first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse and possession of a firearm by a felon, the last two as a repeater. State doctors examined his competency three times; in 2014, a judge ruled he could assist in his defense. At a motion hearing, Thao testified that he and Hang argued about underage girls while driving to the house and that Hang held a knife to his neck. He said that when no girls were there, Hang threatened to beat him and rape his wife, and he shot Hang in the head as Hang moved toward him.

Under a plea agreement, the homicide charge was reduced to second-degree intentional homicide and the repeater enhancers were dropped. On September 17, 2014, Thao pleaded no contest to that charge and guilty to hiding a corpse and possession of a firearm by a felon. Both sides could argue the sentence; the state sought the maximum. A prosecutor called Thao's account "self-refuted by the defendant in his five or six statements." Thao said the killing was not premeditated or intentional and happened in the heat of the moment. He told the court, "I am not a monster. I am truly sorry." Hang's son described his father as a loving family man.

Marathon County Circuit Judge Michael Moran imposed 40 years of initial confinement followed by 20 years of extended supervision on the homicide count, plus the maximum on each remaining count, to run concurrently. Moran said the crime had shocked the community and was "more like an execution than an accident." Thao sought resentencing, arguing the state had breached the plea agreement. The circuit court denied the motion, and on August 15, 2017, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.