Nicolae Miu, the man who fatally stabbed a teenager in Wisconsin’s Apple River in July 2022, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Miu, 54, was found guilty on April 11 of first-degree murder in the death of Isaac Schuman, 17.
The convicted killer was also found guilty of lesser charges: stabbing and wounding four teenagers – three boys and a girl.
Miu, who was sentenced a day after the second anniversary of the tragic incident, bowed his head and burst into tears in the courtroom.
“He stole Isaac’s life, and he stole my life,” said Isaac’s mother, Alina Hernandez. “Justice for me is getting my child back. … I’m thankful the jury got it right and that monster will die in prison. He has no soul. … He’s evil.”
Nicolae Miu, 54, who fatally stabbed a 17-year-old teenager in the Apple River in July 2022, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday
Isaac Schuman, 17, died after Miu stabbed him in the chest in the river on July 30, 2022. Miu was sentenced a day after the second anniversary of his death
“He has no remorse. He plays the victim. It makes me sick. Judge, I ask you to condemn him to the fullest extent,” she added.
Before his sentencing, Miu turned to Isaac’s parents and said, “My soul is broken; my heart is very heavy. I never wanted this tragedy to happen.
“I pray to God for forgiveness, compassion and love for all those directly and indirectly affected by the outcome of this tragic event,” he added.
Miu’s tantrum came after he was surrounded by a large group of rowdy teenagers while he was tubing in the river, several of whom pushed him around and accused him of ‘looking at a girl’.
Video footage of the interaction shows the teens booing Miu before he pulled out a Swiss Army knife and began stabbing them.
When Isaac was attacked by Miu, his friend Owen Peloquin said he didn’t see him being stabbed, but that he ran over to the teen and, along with his other friend Alex, pulled him to the side when they noticed.
“I did my very best to stop the bleeding,” Peloquin said, visibly emotional on the witness stand during his testimony.
Miu, of Prior Lake, Minnesota, claimed his fatal stabbing was “self-defense” after the group of tubers claimed he was “looking for little girls” and “taking pictures of girls” in the area
Isaac was taken by ambulance to Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, where he was pronounced dead.
Ryhley Mattinson, AJ Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson were the other four teens stabbed that day.
Mattinson required emergency surgery and when she arrived at the scene her blood alcohol content was found to be 0.09.
Carlson suffered penetrating trauma from his stab wounds and required surgery for a hernia. His blood alcohol content was also 0.09.
Peloquin said Miu “sprinted towards us in a weird way, which made us all feel uncomfortable.”
The Romanian-American engineer claimed he acted in self-defense.
On the day of his sentencing, jurors were dismissed from the courtroom to deliberate on Miu’s fate while prosecutors and defense attorneys argued over whether it was self-defense.
“Nicolae Miu is a murderer who did not act in self-defense,” prosecutor Karl Anderson told jurors in his plea, saying video footage of Isaac’s July 2022 killing proved his point.
“One of the things the defense said at the beginning of the trial and in their opening was that they’re glad there’s video,” he said. “We’re glad there’s video, too.”
Anderson also denied the claim that Miu was scared when he stabbed Shuman, saying his behavior was the result of a bad mood.
Before his sentencing, Miu turned to Isaac’s parents and said, “My soul is broken; my heart is very heavy. I never wanted this tragedy to happen.”
“Nicolae wasn’t scared,” he snapped, Anderson said.
Anderson added that Miu could have used the knife as a threat and scared Shuman and his friends off, without using force.
Corey Chirafisi, Miu’s attorney, maintained that his client was surrounded and threatened by an undeterred crowd and that the stabbings were justified.
He said, ‘They came into his face, they shouted at him, they cursed him, they swore at him.
‘They laid their hands on him and the group of six, they became brave.
The group of six became so brave that they gathered around him and began to mock him.
They’re doing this to a man who has done nothing to them.
‘And when that man, Mister Miu, tries to create some space between him and Madison Coen, they jump on it.
‘They hit him. They push him. They hit him. They hit him again.
“They’re strangling him. From all directions. And Nic Miu is acting in self-defense.”
Chirafisi highlighted how fearless the boys seemed during the attack, their lies about him being a pedophile and that someone told Miu, “You have 10 seconds.”
“In your everyday experiences in life, if someone tells you you have 10 seconds, what normally comes after that?” Chirafisi continued. “Nothing good comes after that. It’s reasonable to see that as a threat in our experiences as adults.”
When shown photos and videos from that day during his trial, Miu said he was touched by Madison Coen and Mattison before the knife was drawn.
“They were really close, they were really close to me. I could feel them and hear them,” Miu said.
Miu described how he reached for his pocket knife as his fear became “really big,” just before Madison placed her hand on his upper arm.
Miu said in recorded interviews: ‘Suddenly there were wolves around me. They attacked me from all sides and I really feared for my life.
“They came at me. They hit me, they sat on top of me, and I don’t remember anything after that.”
The three-inch Swiss Army knife Miu used to stab the youths in 2022
Miu on the witness stand, tears in his eyes and a smile as he spoke about his puppy during his eight-day trial, as more than three dozen witnesses took the stand
During his testimony, he stated that he did not know how many people attacked him, but that he knew it was “more than he could handle” and that he had had “nightmares” ever since.
A witness, Larrion Davis, later told detectives he saw the attacker “taking pictures of girls” in the area.
However, when Davis testified, he seemed confused about this claim, admitting that he wasn’t sure what he saw because “there was a lot going on.”
Miu’s then-wife, Sondra, told detectives the violent scuffle began after Miu, whose group was further down the river, went back to find a “lost phone” while wearing snorkeling gear.
While he was watching, Sondra said a “group of guys came off their tires and started beating him.”
The trial lasted eight days and included more than three dozen witnesses.
In September 2022, Miu pleaded not guilty to the charges.
He was born in Romania and emigrated to the US as a teenager.
Sondra and Miu divorced after the incident and he “lived a peaceful, quiet life in Minnesota” and “had never been in any trouble.”