Self-defense claim laid out in court for man who fatally stabbed tuber on western Wisconsin river

The attorney for the Prior Lake man charged with fatally stabbing a teenager and wounding four people on the Apple River in western Wisconsin laid out his client's self-defense claim in court Friday.

The hearing for Nicolae Miu, 52, in St. Croix Circuit Court ended with Judge Michael Waterman scheduling an arraignment for Thursday.

At that time, Miu can enter pleas to first-degree murder and attempted murder charges in the death of Isaac Schuman, 17, of Stillwater and the other stabbings during a confrontation among tubers near Somerset.

Officially, the 38-minute hearing's primary purpose was for Waterman to determine whether the prosecution has enough evidence to proceed to a felony trial. After hearing testimony from Sheriff's Lt. Brandie Hart, the judge ruled there was.

Miu remains jailed in lieu of $1 million cash bond. He appeared in person in the Hudson courtroom for the first time after previously taking part in proceedings through a video hookup from the jail.

He sat quietly at a table next to defense attorney Corey Chirafisi. Whenever the livestream camera was on Miu, he was mostly looking down but occasionally raised his eyes as Chirafisi and District Attorney Karl Anderson questioned Hart.

Beyond its procedural necessity, the hearing gave hints through questions posed to Hart about how the prosecution and defense hope to prevail at trial.

Chirafisi asked Hart — based on witness accounts and a bystander's cellphone video of nearly the entire encounter — whether she saw Miu attack anyone before he physically confronted the group.

She said she did not.

"You see people attacking him, and he responds?" To which the lieutenant said, "Yes."

Under prosecution questioning, Hart said Miu had an opportunity to leave the increasingly hostile scene. She also said there was no evidence that anyone confronting him had weapons, despite Miu's contention that they had two knives.

Outlining many of the developments described in the charges, Hart said one group of tubers confronted Miu, accusing him of looking for little girls and demanding he "get away."

She recounted how others joined in, approaching Miu and yelling at him to leave. At that point, Miu was shoved into the water at least twice. Hart said he responded by stabbing the five people.

She said Miu stabbed one of the victims and moved the knife "up the torso."

Miu then walked back to his group and did not call 911, Hart said.

She said she questioned Miu whether he had a knife, and he said he did not. His wife, however, told law enforcement that he did have one, as shown by the video. Hart said the knife used in the stabbings was found on a riverbank.

Chirafisi built his questions around the contention that Miu was far outnumbered by a physically intimidating and angry group of people, including some who accused him of lurking around for lascivious purposes.

Chirafisi won high-profile not guilty verdicts for Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges in November after the teenager testified he acted in self-defense in the summer of 2020, when he fatally shot two people during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wis.

Under questioning by Chirafisi, Hart testified that, according to witnesses, Miu showed no signs of aggression as he first jogged toward several people who were on the river with their tubes roped together. She said he was not yelling or being threatening before someone demanded that he get away from them.

Pivoting to what Hart had seen in the three-minute bystander cellphone video of the encounter, which was not played in court, Chirafisi asked whether there were "little girls" in proximity to the confrontation. "I didn't see any," Hart said.

At one point, Hart estimated, Miu was confronted by more than six people yelling at him from three sides. The video showed that after taking a knife from his pocket, Miu was struck in the face and fell backward into the water, she said. He got up and was pushed down again once, maybe twice, Hart said.

Soon, people surrounded him, Hart testified.

"There's no place to go at that point, right?" the defense attorney asked. "Yes," the lieutenant responded.

The video continued as the stabbing began and ended when Miu walked away, Hart said.

His being attacked "is borne out on that video, yes," Chirafisi asked. Again, Hart answered, "Yes."