HUDSON, Wis. — The man charged in last summer's deadly stabbing on the Apple River in Wisconsin was back in St. Croix County court Friday. Nicolae Miu's attorneys are arguing for evidence in the high-profile case to be tossed out.
Miu's motion hearing took place in a packed courtroom as several of the people he's charged with stabbing looked on.
Mui is charged with first-degree intentional homicide from a stabbing on the Apple River last summer that killed 17-year-old Isaac Schuman and wounded four others.
Miu's attorney wants the judge to toss out his police interrogation and other comments made to police because he had asked for an attorney first.
"Nick was transported to another St. Croix County Deputy's squad car," Sheriff Scott Knudson read from a report while testifying. "While being placed in the squad car, Nic asked if there would be an attorney at the jail."
The evidence is important to the state's case, because according to prior testimony, in that interrogation, Miu claimed he didn't bring a knife when he went tubing on the river. That contradicts what his family said, as they told police he brought a knife.
Miu told police he had taken the knife from one of the individuals and waived it at the group before he was attacked.
If the interrogation evidence gets tossed out, the case will proceed without it.
"I feel good about having a factual and legal basis to make a motion here," Miu's attorney Aaron Nelson said.
Miu is claiming self-defense and Nelson believes the trial will largely come down to how the jury interprets bystander video of the incident.
"There's a video. There may be some contested facts about what happened to begin with. We'll just have to let the video speak for itself," Nelson said.
The judge will decide later whether to toss out this evidence. But he did set a date for the trial. April 1, 2024.
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