HUDSON, Wis. — On Tuesday, the trial of a man charged with killing a teen and injuring four others continued in the St. Croix County courthouse.
Nicolae Miu is charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide and four counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide from a stabbing on the Apple River on July 30, 2022, that killed 17-year-old Isaac Schuman and injured four others
The first person to take the stand Tuesday was Alina Hernandez, the mother of Isaac Schuman. Hernandez emotionally described her son's love for his family and traveling, and his plans to go to college for engineering. She also described the last time she saw Isaac.
"I was out on the deck having coffee ... he said, 'Some of the guys are going out tubing on the river and I think I'm going to do that until we can go golfing,' and I said 'ok,'" Hernandez said. "I said, 'Don't forget your sunscreen,' and I grabbed it and ... I put sunscreen on his ears," she said through tears on the witness stand.
Hernandez said she learned what happened when one of Isaac's friends called to say 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."
The second witness to take the stand on Tuesday was Jawahn Cockfield, who shot the cell phone video used in the trial. He said that Miu approached the teens and grabbed their tubes, making contact with their legs.
Cockfield said Miu punched a woman who was there before the group of teens pushed him into the water. The video captured Cockfield's voice yelling, "He hit a woman?"
Quickly, the fight in the video escalates, and as it plays in the trial, Cockfield starts crying. The video captures Miu holding a knife, which Cockfield said he didn't see until several people were bleeding in the water.
Cockfield said he saw Miu punch a blonde girl, but he didn't catch that part on video. Then, the defense pointed out that his friend group formed a circle around Miu, calling him a pedophile.
The third witness on Tuesday requested to not have their testimony recorded.
The fourth witness was Schuman's best friend, Alex Vang, a freshman at St. John's University.
Vang drove the group of friends to the Apple River and joined them on their tubing trip.
St. Croix County District Attorney Karl Anderson asked Vang if he had been drinking that day and he replied that he had been drinking beer and smoking marijuana.
Vang said the group of friends encountered Miu near a bridge, where Miu was looking in the water with some snorkeling gear.
Vang told the courtroom that he said to Miu, "You're snorkeling in some pretty short water... what are you looking for?"
Anderson asked Vang how he answered. Vang said that Miu was "looking for little girls or something like that." The prosecution said to strike that from Vang's testimony.
Later, Vang became emotional when describing Schuman's stabbing on the river.
"When he fell into the water, he was holding the left side of his chest. When I picked him up, he had a huge gash in his chest... that was bleeding out," Vang said.
When Miu's defense attorney, Corey Chirafisi, began cross-examining Vang he asked why Vang never told police about Miu allegedly saying he was "looking for little girls or something like that."
Chirafisi asked Vang if he believed that the group of friends antagonized Miu and Vang agreed.
Chirafisi tried to establish that Miu was encircled by the group of friends and was threatened when someone yelled "You've got 10 seconds."
"Do you believe (Miu's) getting his butt kicked?" asked Chirafisi.
Vang responded, "Yes."
In the complaint, investigators said they spoke with multiple witnesses and members of the group involved in the confrontation who indicated Miu was bothering them. They supported what others told law enforcement, that the defendant was only physically confronted after he had punched a young woman in the face.
The fifth witness was 50-year-old Quinton Carlson who was tubing with a group of 11.
They claimed to have stopped on the river near the six teenagers because the boys were calling for help.
Miu's defense attorney Aaron Nelson attempted to cast doubt on this by repeatedly pointing out that the calls for help were not seen or heard on Cockfield's cell phone video.
Carlson told the prosecution he stayed at his group's tubes but sent his two sons, Dante and Tony, to see what was going on.
"I told my boys to stop our tubes for a minute and at that point I saw Mr. Miu charge their tubes and stop their tubes from progressing down the river. I saw him acting in an aggressive and drunk behavior," Carlson said.
Carlson told the courtroom he had a bad feeling about what might happen if things didn't de-escalate.
"The way he was acting and was literally stuck the tubes were wrapped around his legs and he was stopping the tubes from going down the river. And I thought at some point... the boys were still calling out for us to come help them. But I thought if those boys get off their tubes, they're going to beat the brakes of this guy," Carlson said.
When Nelson cross-examined Carlson, he questioned him about his group's alcohol consumption, the position of the 13 people closest to Miu and the sequence of events that led up to the stabbings.
The sixth witness was 21-year-old Dante Carlson who was taken to a hospital by helicopter after being stabbed by Miu.
During his testimony on the witness stand, Dante Carlson was asked to show his stabbing scar to the jury.
Dante Carlson admitted to hitting Miu three times and said he hit him because Miu hit a woman.
He claims he saw Miu punch Madison Cohen, who was with the Carlson group.
The seventh witness in the trial was Schumer's friend, 19-year-old Landon Weyer, who rode on the raft of tubes with the teenage boys.
Weyer told the prosecution he had been drinking a couple of beers, two shots of vodka and smoked marijuana.
When asked about his first contact with Miu on the river that day, Weyer said he thought it was strange Miu was snorkeling in such shallow water and asked him what he was doing.
"He mentioned something about little girls," Weyer said from the witness stand.
During cross-examination, Chirafisi asked why Weyer never told police about the alleged "little girls" comment.
Chirafisi asked Weyer if he believed teens antagonized Miu and Weyer agreed that they did.
The defense team argued Miu felt outnumbered during the confrontation and he feared for his life. The defense attorneys also made a point to ask every witness how much alcohol they drank leading up to the confrontation.
The defense team appears to be building up an argument that alcohol and marijuana impaired their judgement and may have escalated the situation.
On Monday, the state called its first witnesses, following the seating of the jury and opening statements. Prosecutors also played a graphic cell phone video showing the interaction between a group of teens and Miu.
A criminal complaint said Miu, who was 52 years old at the time, was out tubing on the river with his wife and friends when the incident boiled over shortly after 3:45 p.m. on that Saturday. Prosecutors say Miu pulled a knife with a blade approximately three inches long from his pocket and lashed out at a group of younger people during a confrontation.
In the complaint filed against Miu, prosecutors described a video of the incident that reflects the defendant swimming up to a group of juveniles with a diving mask and snorkel and grabbing their tubes. The video reportedly shows multiple people surround Miu and yelling at him, capturing members of the group accusing the defendant of being a child molester and "looking for little girls." Prosecutors maintain it was clear Miu had opportunity to walk away from the situation.
The defendant's wife later claimed he put the mask on to search for a cell phone that had been dropped in the river.
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