Apple River trial defendant’s fate now up to Wisconsin jury

Jurors in the trial of a Prior Lake man are sorting two starkly different portraits of Nicolae Miu, whose decisions during a confrontation with a group of teenagers along the Apple River are at the heart of this Wisconsin murder trial.

The jury started deliberating about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, following closing arguments from the prosecution and defense at the St. Croix County Courthouse in Hudson. Miu is facing a first-degree intentional homicide charge in the death of Isaac Schuman, 17, with a maximum possible sentence of life in prison, and attempted murder charges against four others.

In his closing argument, prosecutor Karl Anderson pushed against the defense narrative that Miu feared for his life in the moments leading up to the stabbings. “Nicolae was not in fear, he snapped,” Anderson said.

Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi countered that Miu was scared and surrounded by drunk people who were yelling at him. “They got in his face, they screamed at him, they called him names, they swore at him, they put hands on him,” Chirafisi said.

Deliberations continued until the late afternoon, with the jury returning to the courtroom at one point for another viewing of a three-minute, 25-second video that shows parts of the confrontation between Miu and the group. The jury was scheduled to reconvene first thing Thursday to continue deliberations, and at the end of the day Chirafisi said they requested a chance to revisit parts of the video again in the morning.

The prosecution also asked the jury to consider lesser charges depending on what they decide about Miu’s intent.

The confrontation took place July 30, 2022, at a popular recreation area near Somerset, Wis. — a longtime destination for inner-tubing in the summer months. Besides Schuman, Miu also stabbed Alexander Martin, Dante Carlson, Anthony Carlson and Rhyley Mattison. As seen in the video, the confrontation quickly escalated from shouting and pushing into bloody violence.

Miu, 54, admits to the stabbings but claims he feared for his life. He says he approached the group in the first place because he was looking for a cell phone that someone in his own group of inner-tubers had lost while in the water.

Turning to the jury and nodding to a TV where photos of Schuman appeared, Anderson called the teenager’s death senseless. He said Miu should have walked away.

“He was angry and he snapped, and he knew it. If he was actually in fear, he would have left,” Anderson said.

Schuman was stabbed in the torso with enough force that the pocketknife went through two ribs and into his heart, according to testimony. He died almost immediately. In the video, multiple people can be heard yelling and screaming in the immediate aftermath as someone shouts: “Is this real?”

When authorities arrested Miu near the river about an hour after the stabbing, prosecutors said the lies he told showed him trying to hide his crime. On the stand, Miu acknowledged he initially denied to police that he’d been carrying a knife when the scuffle broke out. When first interviewed by investigators, he’d said two young men had pulled knives and that he grabbed one of them.

Miu testified that, as he approached the group in search of the lost phone, they began to pepper him with taunts about being a pedophile. They surrounded and pushed him, he said, causing a feeling of panic. His attorney noted that Miu had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery in 2020.

“This man, who had heart surgery, is terrified of what’s going on,” Chirafisi said. “If you believe it’s probably self-defense, he’s not guilty. If you believe it’s possibly self-defense, he’s not guilty.”

“Nic didn’t move toward Isaac Schuman,” Chirafisi added. “Isaac Schuman moved toward him.”

While Miu faces up to life in prison, prosecutors on Tuesday also requested that jurors consider lesser charges.

That could include second-degree intentional homicide, or first- or second-degree reckless homicide for the death of Schuman; and a series of lesser possible charges for stabbing the other four individuals. The lesser charges could come into play if the jury does not believe that Miu intended to kill Schuman or was trying to kill the others.

In his instructions, Judge Michael Waterman told the jurors to draw their own conclusions from the evidence. The verdict must be unanimous.

“There is no magic way for you to evaluate the testimony; instead, you should use your common sense and experience,” Waterman told the jurors. “In everyday life, you determine for yourselves the reliability of things people say to you. You should do the same thing here.”

Star Tribune staff writers Greta Kaul and Louis Krauss contributed to this story.