Nicolae Miu has been found guilty of the first-degree reckless homicide of a 17 year-old boy after he was surrounded by a gang of teens while tubing on a Wisconsin River.
Miu, 54, was convicted Thursday morning over the September 2022 stabbing of Isaac Schuman on the Apple River in Wisconsin.
The convicted killer was also found guilty of lesser charges of stabbing and injuring four teens – three boys and a girl.
He sat in silence with his head bowed as the verdict was read out after less than a day’s deliberation. The trial lasted eight days, as more than three dozen witnesses took the stand.
The families of Miu’s victims were heard giving a sigh of relief, KARE11 reporter Lou Raguse said.
As he was led away afterwards, Miu was seen turning to stare at his surviving victims and their families.
Miu turned to stare at his surviving victims and their families as he was found guilty of first-degree reckless homicide Thursday, meaning he faces up to 60 years in jail
Isaac Shuman, 17, died after Miu stabbed him in his chest in the river. Miu also stabbed four of Schuman’s friends
Nicolae Miu sits with his head bowed Thursday morning as he is found guilty of the first-degree reckless homicide of 17 year-old Isaac Schuman
The families of Miu’s victims were heard giving a sigh of relief, Kare11 reporter Lou Raguse said
First-degree reckless homicide was the third option available to jurors, after first-degree intentional homicide and second-degree homicide.
It carries a sentence of up to 60 years in prison.
Jurors were sent out to consider the case Thursday afternoon, with prosecutors refuting claims that Miu acted in self defense.
They claimed he could have dispatched his attackers by flashing his knife without resorting to violence.
The Romanian-American engineer had claimed he acted in self defense.
He was searching for a friend’s lost phone in the river when he was falsely accused of being a pedophile who was taking photos of young girls.
Video of the interaction showed the teenagers heckling Miu before he pulled out a Swiss Army knife and started jabbing them.
When Shuman was attacked by Miu, Owen Peloquin said that he didn’t see him get stabbed but rushed over to him and brought him to shore with his other friend Alex after they realized.
‘I tried my hardest to stop the bleeding,’ Peloquin said as he became visibly emotional.
Schuman was taken in an ambulance to the Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater where he was pronounced dead.
Ryhley Mattinson, A.J Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson were the other four teenagers stabbed that day.
Mattinson had to have emergency surgery and when she arrived her blood alcohol level was at 0.09.
Carlson suffered penetrating trauma from his stab wounds and had to have a hernia repaired and his blood alcohol level was also 0.09.
As he testified in court on Monday, Peloquin said that Miu ‘just weirdly like sprinted at us, just made us all super uncomfortable.’
Rhyley Mattison (left) and Tony Carlson (right) – two of the five teens stabbed by Miu in Apple River. Mattinson had to have emergency surgery
A.J. Marin (left) and Dante Carlson(right) – two others that were stabbed by Miu
During closing arguments on Wednesday, prosecutors said that Nicolae Miu ‘did not act in self-defense’ when he stabbed a group of teens in the Apple River in July 2022. (pictured: Miu in court on Tuesday)
On Wednesday, jurors were sent out to consider Miu’s fate as prosecutors and defense attorneys battled over whether it was self-defense.
Nicolae Miu is a murderer who did not act in self defense, DA Karl Anderson told jurors in his closing arguments – and said video of Isaac Shuman’s July 2022 killing proved his point.
‘One of the things the defense said at the beginning of trial and in their opening was they’re glad there’s a video,’ he said. ‘So are we.’
Anderson also rubbished claims Miu, originally from Romania, was scared when he stabbed Shuman – and said his behavior was the result of a bad temper.
‘Nikolae was not in fear, he snapped.’ Anderson said.
Anderson added that Miu could have brandished the knife as a threat and scared Shuman and his friends off without resorting to violence, that saw four other stabbed too.
He sought to play down assertions Miu had been cornered, saying: ‘He’s not in an alley with no way out, people blocking his exit.’
Corey Chirafisi, Miu’s lawyer, insisted his client had been rounded on and threatened by a fearless mob and that the stabbings were justified.
He said: ‘They got in his face, they screamed at him, they called him names, they swore at him.
‘They put their hands on him and the group of six, they became brave.
‘The group of six became brave to the point that they circled him and start taunting him.
Miu of Prior Lake, Minnesota, claimed that his lethal stabbing was ‘self-defense’ after the group of tubers claimed that he was ‘looking for little girls’ and ‘taking pictures of girls’ in the area
When asked about the violent confrontation Miu said that he had ‘tunnel vison’ and forgot what happened after the situation got heated
Video of the chilling moment showed a member of the group stumbling into the river while a pool of red water emerged around him
‘They do this to a man who has done nothing, absolutely nothing to them.
‘Then, when that man, Mr. Miu, tries to create some space between him and Madison Coen, they pounce.
‘They punch him. They push him. They slap him. They hit him again.
‘They choke him. From, all directions. And Nic Miu acts in self-defense.’
Chirafisi highlighted how unafraid the boys seemed during the attack, their lies about him being a pedophile and that one was heard saying to Miu ‘You got 10 seconds.’
‘In your everyday experiences in life, when someone tells you that you have 10 seconds, what normally comes after that?’ Chirafisi continued. ‘Nothing good is coming after that. It’s reasonable in our experiences as adults to take that as a threat.’
Also on Wednesday, prosecutors sought to have a female juror they alleged was sleeping removed from the trial – but were unable to do so.
Judge Michael Waterman determined that there wasn’t enough evidence to strike the juror and denied her removal.
On Tuesday, Miu took to the stand and described how he feared for his life after they ‘surrounded him like wolves’ on the day of the attack.
Shuman’s mother, Alina Hernandez, was seen in court during Miu’s testimony as she held a tissue to her nose
When asked about the violent confrontation, Miu said that he had ‘tunnel vision’ and was ‘in a fog’ during the heated situation.
He said that prior to interacting with the group, he had ‘volunteered’ to look for a friend’s lost phone in the water before he interacted with the teenagers.
As he was shown pictures and video from that day, Miu said that he was touched by Madison Coen and Mattison before the knife was drawn.
He then said that as the interaction with the teens continued, his fear ‘crept up’ as they started to laugh and yell around him.
‘They were very close, they were really close to me. I could feel and hear them,’ Miu said.
Miu described how he reached for his pocket knife as his fear got ‘really high’ just before Madison placed her hand on his upper arm.
In recorded interviews, Miu said: ‘All of a sudden, they were like wolves around me and they were attacking me from all directions and I truly, truly, feared for my life.’
‘They came on to me. They hit me, they got on top of me, and I don’t remember anything after that.’
During his testimony, he said that he didn’t know how many people were attacking him but he knew that there were ‘more than he could handle’ and that he has had ‘nightmares’ since.
A witness, Larrion Davis later told investigators that he saw the attacker ‘taking pictures of girls’ in the area.
On Monday, Owen Peloquin, 19, testified in court as he detailed the moment Miu attacked his friend group
Ryhley Mattinson, A.J Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson were the other four teenagers stabbed that day
However, as he took the stand last week, Davis appeared confused over this claim, and admitted he wasn’t sure what he saw because ‘there was a lot going on.’
Miu’s then wife Sondra told detectives that the violent altercation began after Miu, whose group was further up the river, went back to find a ‘phone that was lost’ while wearing snorkeling gear.
While he was looking, Sondra said a ‘group of guys got off their tubes and started hitting’ him.
Miu pleaded not guilty to the charges in September 2022.
He was originally born in Romania and immigrated to the US when he was a teenager.
Sondra and Miu got divorced after the incident and he was ‘living a peaceful, quiet life in Minnesota’ and ‘had never been in trouble before.’
