HUDSON, Wis. — Prosecutors will wind up their list of witnesses over the next day or two as the homicide trial of Nicolae Miu enters its second week.
The 54-year-old Miu is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the stabbing death of Stillwater teen Isaac Schuman, and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the stabbings of Ryhley Mattison, A.J. Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson. Miu and the victims were among three groups that encountered each other on the Apple River the afternoon of July 30, 2022, leading to an explosion of violence that would end a young life and change multiple others forever.
Day 6 testimony
8:05 a.m
First up for the prosecution was Owen Peloquin, a friend of Isaac Schuman's who was on the Apple River that day.
Peloquin described their encounter with Miu, how he walked up on the teens wearing a swim mask, acting "weird" and making them feel scared. He recalled seeing a confrontation building between Miu and Madeline Coen, who had come over to help the teens. Peloquin said some of his friends walked toward the conflict, and he noticed the clip of a knife outside the defendant's pocket.
"Bro, he has a knife," Peloquin was heard on video of the incident as he tried to pull his friend Ryan Nelson out of the fray.
The teen became emotional as he described how he and his friend Alexander Vang picked up Isaac and pulled him to the shore. "I tried my hardest to stop the bleeding," Peloquin said, fighting back tears.
During cross-examination, Miu's defense team questioned Peloquin about a 17-minute videotaped interview he did with law enforcement after the fatal incident. He was asked about telling police that Miu told them he was looking for a phone. Peloquin said he did not remember that.
"Is your memory better today, or on the day of the incident," asked defense attorney Corey Chirafisi.
"I'd say today," replied Peloquin, saying things were more clear with time to process what happened.
"It's better today than two years ago?" Chirafisi asked, skeptically.
The defense referenced multiple derogatory names the teens called Miu - specifically mentioning the term "raper" - asking what basis they had for using those terms. Chirafisi asked if Peloquin's group was "getting braver" because there were more people around, and wondered aloud if they instead could have moved on and avoided trouble. Peloquin said they were curious kids and wanted to stick around and see how the incident finished.
Chirafisi maintained that the teens were feeling more confident and brave because of the third group supporting them, and asked Peloquin if the young people were taunting Miu, and showed pictures of the witness pointing at Miu and yelling.
Peloquin acknowledged that his behavior could be perceived as taunting.
The defense pressed the witness on his recall of a reported punch that Miu thew at Coen. Peloquin said he didn't see the punch but "heard it" and saw Coen stumble backward. Chirafisi repeatedly asked how the teen knew that Miu punched anyone if he didn't actually see it. Peloquin testified he didn't see any of the subsequent violence inflicted on Miu, saying he was in shock after seeing the knife.
8:55 a.m.
The state next called Acute Care Surgeon Brian Meyer to the stand. Meyer was on duty at Regions Hospital on July 30 when three patients who had been stabbed arrived for emergency treatment.
Meyer detailed how Ryhley Mattison was the first patient to arrive at the hospital. Not knowing the extent of her injuries, Dr. Meyer sent Mattison in for an exploratory procedure. Stab wounds to her stomach and diaphragm were discovered, requiring emergency surgery.
The doctor said that Mattison had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .09.
While Mattison was being cared for Dr. Meyer testified that he learned that a more critical patient had arrived at Regions. Meyer identified that patient as A.J. Martin and told jurors that during his life flight to the hospital Martin's heart stopped for nine minutes. The patient's heart was restarted before landing, but en route to the operating room his heart stopped again.
Meyer told the courtroom that Martin received blood during the life flight, he was in shock and required "massive" amounts of blood before and during surgery. The patient's most important injuries were to an iliac artery and a major vein, along with three injuries to his small intestine and his colon.
The doctor said Martin's penetrating wound ran from his sternum to his pelvis, and when asked by prosecutors whether Martin would have survived if not treated, Dr. Meyer said no. "I've not had a patient with that large of a penetrating wound previously," Meyer testified.
Week 1
Week one of Miu's trial was filled with compelling and emotional testimony and exhibits, including video of the confrontation on the river that erupted between Miu and a group of teens, eventually involving a third group of young adults. Schuman's mother Alina Hernandez took the stand and tearfully told jurors of receiving a call from one of Isaac's friends saying he had been stabbed.
"I just went running, I ran up into one of the ambulances thinking it was Isaac sitting up in there and I started crawling into the ambulance and I realized it wasn't Isaac, it was one of the other kids," she said. "So then I climbed out and I looked and I saw Isaac's hair, lying on the riverbank. I knew it was him. They were trying to perform CPR on him."
A.J. Martin described being stabbed so severely that he had to hold his internal organs inside his body, and spending 27 days in a hospital fighting for his life. He fought to hold back tears as he watch video of him getting stabbed frame by frame.
Nurse Andrea Baldazo shared her recollections of being on the Apple River that fateful day with her husband and children when they saw a confrontation and a body laying on the river bank. Baldazo tearfully recalled performing CPR on Schuman "forever," singing the Baby Shark song with other samaritans to keep rhythm in an attempt to save the 17-year-old. They were ultimately unsuccessful.
Mui's former wife Sondra Miu told the court that her husband brought a knife to the river only to cut rope used to tie inner tubes together. She testified that she was enjoying the day, laying back and looking at the clouds when she heard a disturbance, looked over and saw her then-husband on his hands and knees in the river with someone hitting him.
In an unusual development, the prosecution moved through witnesses so fast that none were available Friday so the defense called some of its witnesses out of order.
KARE 11 will livestream the trial beginning at 8 a.m. or shortly thereafter when court convenes.
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