HUDSON, Wis. — Prosecutors opened day four of the trial of Nicolae Miu by calling more witnesses who were on the Apple River the day Miu allegedly stabbed five people, killing a teen and wounding four others.
Miu is charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide and four counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide for allegedly killing 17-year-old Isaac Schuman.
The state says Miu had every opportunity to walk away from the altercation, while Miu's legal team is painting it as a case of self-defense, a man surrounded by an angry mob who feared for his life.
On Thursday the prosecution announced that they intend to wrap up their case by Monday or Tuesday, when the defense will begin calling its own witnesses.
2 p.m.
St. Croix County Sheriff's Lt. Charles Coleman, tasked with forensically mapping the crime scene that day, took the stand next.
Prosecutors showed 3D renderings in comparison to drone video taken of the river, which Coleman described as one tool the office uses to preserve crime scenes and see them from different perspectives. They showed the estimated location of where the knife was found, explaining that before any such investigation, the sheriff's office performs an accuracy check at the beginning of a scan. He said they found the scan to be accurate.
The defense team asked several questions about the people's placement in the river. Defense attorney Aaron Nelson asked Lt. Coleman if 150 feet was plenty of room for a group to go around one man" in the river. Lt. Colman said "Yes."
However, a short time later, prosecutor Karl Anderson asked Lt. Coleman if 150 feet was plenty of room for a man to go around a group in the river and Lt. Coleman agreed.
Two more witnesses were called to the stand for a brief time. They were involved in the translation of Spanish to English during the investigation. They are expected to take the stand on Friday for lengthier testimony.
Day 4 ended after the prosecution team told the judge that they had run out of witnesses for the day. The trial resumes Friday at 8 a.m.
1:30 p.m.
St. Croix County investigator Mitch Sheappi was called to the stand next, testifying about the approximate location of where the knife was initially located. Sheappi confirmed the knife laid in a muddy part of the shoreline, appearing undisturbed since the stabbings. He told the court that officers quickly secured the knife at the scene and stored it in a squad car until it could be processed.
The defense team pivoted from the knife on cross-examination, asking Sheappi if the sheriff's department ever received photo evidence of Madison's injuries after allegedly being punched by Miu. The defense went on to cast doubt on Madison's claim, asking Sheappi whether a forensic download of her phone's contents, including deleted files, yielded any evidence as to whether she was assaulted. Sheappi said he did not locate anything applicable to the claim upon the search.
Attorneys then drew attention to an interview with investigators in the days after the incident in which Madison and her mother claimed again that Miu punched Madison. They showed a still shot from the recorded interview in which Madison's mother points to the left side of her face to demonstrate where she said her daughter was hit, a fact in direct contention with earlier testimony that Madison was hit on the right side of her face.
Prosecutors asked Sheappi whether he could confirm the defense's narrative around the still shot, but Knudson conceded he couldn't be certain of the depiction as the shot was taken out of context.
1 p.m.
St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson took the stand following the morning recess. He testified he responded to the closest access point to the crime scene on the day of the incident, the Sunrise Bridge.
Shortly after he arrived, Knudson said officers reported they had a suspect in custody. Knudson said that's when he made his first contact with Miu. Prosecutors played the video from Knudson's body camera, showing Miu handcuffed in the back of a squad car. The sheriff asks Miu if he's OK, to which he responds, "Yes. What's going on? I hear somebody was stabbed and I fit the description?"
Following their first interaction, Knudson said Miu was then transferred to another squad car in the parking lot, where he was first told by officers that he was under arrest.
During cross-examination, the defense pressed Knudson on his knowledge of Miu's whereabouts when he exited the river. Knudson said it was his understanding that Miu exited through the designated tubing exit, Village Park.
Speaking on his interactions with Miu, Knudson maintained he did not detect any signs that Miu was intoxicated at the time.
11:38 a.m.
St. Croix County Sheriff's Lt. Mitch Thomason was the fifth law enforcement officer called to the stand Thursday morning. Thomason noted for the jury that he was off duty on that day but responded to the scene when the department's SWAT team was paged.
Thomason testified that he used caution while approaching Village Park after reports of a suspect sighting, with handgun drawn and pointed down as he saw a group approaching him. "It struck me as odd that one of the people in that group was wearing a long-sleeve button-up shirt, hat and glasses. Didn't fit in with the rest of the group."
While he felt that man could have been the stabber, Thomason told jurors he knew a larger group of officers was coming behind him. He walked past the group, and then five to 10 seconds later a civilian carrying a baseball bat yelled that it was the suspect.
Lieutenant Thomason said he and two other officers arrested Miu. His bodycam was activated and rolling as they handcuffed the defendant and took him back to Thomason's squad.
"So right now you're being arrested, OK?," the lieutenant is overheard saying. "You're being arrested for homicide and attempted homicide."
During cross-examination, defense attorney Aaron Nelson went back over Thomason's arrival at Village Park and asked the witness why he chose to walk past and didn't immediately take action when he recognized Miu as the suspect they were looking for. He asked Thomason if he was "fearful" when he pulled his gun. The lieutenant said it was not a response to fear, but to doing his job.
Nelson emphasized that Miu was walking at a regular pace and not running, and asked Thomason if he didn't engage because his "danger assessment" was not high. The defense also noted that Thomason and the other arresting officers did not document anything regarding Miu's possible alcohol usage.
10:55 a.m.
St. Croix County Sheriff's Deputy Benjamin Trebian was the officer who identified Nicholae Miu as he exited the Apple River following the altercation that left one person dead and four injured.
Trebian told jurors he arrived on scene that day and was tasked with establishing a perimeter so the stabbing suspect - who was still on the loose - could not evade law enforcement. He responded to Village Park where tubers leave the river, matched Nicolae Miu with a photo that was circulating and helped arrest the defendant. The deputy's body camera was activated when Miu was taken into custody. He appeared calm and did not resist.
"He's got some pretty good markings on his hands too," one officer was heard remarking on the body cam video.
Trebian said he then took photos of Miu's hands for evidence. He searched the defendant, found nothing, and then helped K9 teams search for evidence.
During cross-examination by the defense, Deputy Trebian was asked why he took photos of Miu's hands, and he answered that it is common practice to do so when a suspect has been in an altercation. Miu's defense team also asked Trebian if he noticed any smell or signs of alcohol intoxication, and he said he did not.
On re-direct, prosecutors asked the deputy about Miu's demeanor when he was arrested, prompting Trebian to recall that the defendant's expression was blank, "in a trance-like state, almost."
Defense attorney Aaron Nelson asked Trebian if that trancelike state could be interpreted as "shock" or trauma that follows an incident that the one Miu had been through. The deputy agreed that it was possible.
10:25 a.m.
Prosecutors continued the procession of law enforcement officers to the stand by calling former Somerset police officer Levi Stumo, who currently works for another agency.
Stumo testified he was the first officer to head upriver after arriving near the scene of the stabbings. Bodycam video shows him encountering Madison Coen, who says a man punched her in the face. He also makes contact with stabbing victim Tony Carlson, who was leaving the river while holding his side. The video then captures officer Stumo entering the water.
"Can't go fast," Stumo remarked, obviously working hard to navigate the strong current of the Apple River.
The officer recalled how he encountered Andrea Baldoza and her husband as they worked to save 17-year-old Isaac Schuman. When asked, he testified that he did not see the snorkel or mask recovered by Baldoza's husband.
When prosecutors asked if the "temperature" on the river was "high, intense," Stumo confirmed that emotions were running high.
10 a.m.
Prosecutors called another first responder to the stand to describe the chaos he encountered after responding to the Apple River on the day of the mass stabbing. St. Croix County Sheriff's Sergeant Chase DuRand told the courtroom he was on patrol about nine miles from the incident when he got the call of a stabbing with multiple victims.
DuRand described parking his squad vehicle on an overpass and making his way down an embankment to the river, where he discovered Somerset Police Sergeant John Farrell. He recalled the scene as hectic, encountering a lot of people making their way off the river.
The sergeant said he used a soft stretcher to help Farrell evacuate Ryhley Mattison, who had suffered significant stabbing injuries, then turned his attention to finding the suspect in the incident. Some witnesses yelled that there was "a guy in scuba gear" walking up the river, and DuRand's bodycam captured another describing the assailant as "just some rando on the river, 5-9, 5-10, some Russian-looking guy."
DuRand testified that the scene was hectic, and he was trying to process different descriptions of suspect so he could share it with other first responders. He recalled hearing commotion up in the woods and learning it was people who were looking for the suspect, later identified as Miu. He recalled being concerned about what would happen if they found him.
9:35 a.m.
Somerset Police Sergeant John Farrell took the stand to detail how he was dispatched to the Apple River on July 30, 2022 on reports of a stabbing with multiple victims. Farrell detailed how he used bolt cutters to gain access to the old Sunrise Campground, then drove down to the river bank. Sgt, Farrell was one of the first to arrive on the scene.
Farrell told the jury he was immediately flagged down by a group of people that included one victim with a stab wound. He then encountered a woman who would be identified as Ryhley Mattison sitting on a tube with her "bodily organs" outside of her chest cavity. The sergeant testified that he retrieved his medical kit, shared the equipment with first responders who were trying to help Mattison and then entered the river. "There were people everywhere, I didn't know who was who," Farrell recalled.
Prosecutors played video from Farrell's bodycam that reflected his encounter with Mattison and those trying to help her, talking to them with a voice that was strong but calm and reassuring. At one point the bodycam captured a radio transmission about the suspect in the stabbings.
"The guy is still walking up the river," Sgt. Farrell told a dispatcher.
"The suspect?" the dispatcher asked.
"I just received information the suspect is on foot, walking up the river," Farrell radioed. "EMS is clear to get up here. Just make sure they know the suspect is still at large."
Farrell testified that he was not involved in the search for the suspect, but instead engaged with the group doing CPR on Schuman and joined the effort to save him. He said they eventually put the teen on a backboard, laid him on an inner tube and floated him off the river.
9:10 a.m.
Prosecutors called St. Croix County Emergency Communications Coordinator Terry Anderson to the stand. Anderson told jurors he was asked to recover a series of 911 calls from the afternoon of July 30, 2022 and provide recordings for investigators.
The prosecution played a number of those calls back in court, one that was not in English, others that reflected the chaos of what was happening with callers yelling and trying to convey what was happening.
"I don't know what happened, somebody pulled a knife," one caller told a dispatcher.
"Do you know where the man with the knife is?" the dispatcher asked.
"Someone pulled a knife on our friend.... I have no idea what happened," the caller responded, with people talking in the background.
Anderson testified that there were numerous 911 calls starting at 3:47 p.m., leaving dispatchers scrambling to quickly gather the most pertinent information so they could move on to other callers.
8:40 a.m.
The second witness called Thursday was Andrea Baldazo, a nurse from Forest Lake who was tubing the river with her husband and three kids on the day Isaac Schuman was killed. Baldazzo recalled her husband saying something like "Those people are having quite a time," and when she looked over there was someone laying on the river bank, and it was clear to her that someone had been hurt.
Baldazo says she jumped off her tube and attempted to run over but she was knocked down by the river's strong current, and was forced to "Army crawl" the rest of the way. She tearfully recalled seeing a blonde boy laying on his back, eyes open, not blinking or breathing. She would later learn that boy was Isaac Schuman. Baldazo told the courtroom that she saw a large cut and through he had maybe impaled himself on a tree or limb, but then saw he had been slashed in the upper left chest.
The witness struggled to retain her composure while describing her efforts to save the teen, first looking for something to seal the wound while she performed chest compressions. "It felt like forever," Baldazo said, recalling that she and others who were helping sang the "Baby Shark" song to maintain a rhythm for the compressions.
Baldazo said she was still with Schuman when first responders arrived and took him away.
8:05 a.m.
First on the stand Thursday was Janelle Duxbury, who was part of what prosecutors are calling the Carlson group that became entangled with two additional groups on the Apple River July 30, 2022. One group was made up of teenagers including 17-year-old Isaac Schuman and the other group included Nicolae Miu.
Unlike others in her group, Duxbury told the court she was not intoxicated that day, having only ingested one shot and a seltzer. She recalled hearing loud voices and yelling, looking over and hearing her friend Maddy yelling, swearing and telling Miu to "get out of here."
Duxbury told the court she did not see Miu hit Madison Coen but saw her react afterward. At that point, she testified, Daunte Carlson hit Miu and Miu punched Carlson back. In the chaos that followed she said the defendant stabbed Ryhley Mattison, and Duxbury said she jumped in to render assistance. She walked Mattison back to their group and told them to get her help, then ran back to help Tony Carlson and A.J. Martin, who had also been stabbed during the confrontation. She described "holding Martin together," after a knife ripped open his abdomen.
During cross-examination, Duxbury was asked about a statement she made to police about Madison Coen heading towards the altercation between the teens and Miu and "mellowing things out." Miu's attorney asked if she believed that Coen, caught on video swearing and yelling at Miu, was trying to calm the situation down.
"No," Duxbury said.
She recalled hearing people taunting the defendant, who was alone against a growing group of people, and said she was concerned things could go poorly for Miu.
The defense then went through the sequence of events that led to the stabbings, pointing out inconsistencies between her memories of what happened and video of the actual event.
Duxbury was asked about Miu's actions on that day, and although she testified he was not acting in an aggressive manner the witness said she was fearful of him, describing what she called a hollow, demonic look on his face.
"His eyes did not look human... very daunting," Duxbury testified. "I was 1000 percent sure I was going to get a knife in the back as I was running away with Ryhley."
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