HUDSON, WI — Nicolae Miu The defendant is testifying for the defense in the Apple River stabbing trial on Tuesday after prosecutors rested their case.
Miu, 54, stabbed five people in the river, killing 17-year-old Isaac Schumann and injuring four others. The victims ranged in age from 17 to 24 and were from Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The government wants proof that Myuu was the perpetrator that day, but defense He claims he stabbed five people in self-defense.
Mew is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Schumann's death and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the stabbing deaths of Riley Mattison, A.J. Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson.he pleaded not guilty All claims will be completed in September 2022.
WCCO will have live coverage throughout the trial, which can be viewed in the video player above. CBS News Minnesota, pluto tv or CBS News App on your mobile phone or connected TV.
Medical examiner testifies
Ramsey County Assistant Medical Examiner Victor Frolov was the first witness to take the stand Tuesday.
The prosecution began by examining Frolov's background, which includes 19 years in his current position and 39 years in the medical field.
Frolov performed an autopsy on Schumann.
Mr. Frolov said that during an external examination, he noticed a sharp impact injury to Mr. Schumann's left chest. When he examined Mr. Schumann internally, he reclassified it as a stab wound, which he said meant “the depth of the wound exceeded the length of the skin wound.”
The stab wounds damaged Schumann's ribs, left lung and heart, Frolov said.
Prosecutors then examined photos taken during the autopsy. These photos were not shown in court, but witnesses and jurors were given paper copies.
While reviewing the photos, Frolov noticed that two of Schumann's ribs were “severed” when “the weapon penetrated the ribcage.”
Frolov said he prepared a toxicology report that showed Schumann's blood alcohol level was 0.219. He found that there were “no other substances or drugs” in Schumann's system.
Frolov determined that Schumann's cause of death was a stab wound to the left chest, and that the manner of death was homicide.
The defense asked Frolov to clarify that “murder” in this case was not a legal term, and Frolov agreed. Miu's attorney also pointed out that Schuman's BAC was more than twice the legal limit for operating a vehicle in Wisconsin.
A lengthy interrogation attempted to determine the cause of the depth of Schumann's wounds, including whether he was advancing toward the weapon or falling into it. Frolov said he had “never witnessed this incident” and agreed that the possibilities presented by the defense were reasonable, although he said there were “infinite possibilities” as to the cause.
Brandi Hart testifies
Next on the stand was Brandi Hart, a special operations lieutenant with the St. Croix County Sheriff's Office.
Hart interviewed Nicolae Miu and his then-wife after the stabbing.
The prosecutor is playing Video recording of the interview with Miu.
In the video, after being read her Miranda rights, Miu begins telling Hart about her day. He repeatedly claimed self-defense, saying another group had called him a “child molester.”
“They started calling me names and got off the tube and came at me,” Miu said.
He said he was “very scared” and “went into self-protection mode.”
Miu said two people pointed knives at him and he took one of the knives.
“I poked him with my hand and then took it out of his hand,” Miu said. “I took the knife from one of the kids.”
He also said he had been “drinking beer all day.”
“Of course I drank a lot, but who doesn't drink?'' he said. He also said the other group, Schumann's group, was “too drunk.”
Miu agreed to have a DNA sample taken during the interview, and Hart took a DNA sample at the end of the interview.
At one point during the interview, Hart told Miu that four people had gone to the hospital and one had died.
“Oh no,” Myuu said. “Is that because they fought?”
He later said, “My whole life is hell now.”
Miu asks Heart if he found the knife, but Heart replies that he doesn't know.
Related: Video of Nicolae Miu's police interview played during Apple River stabbing trial: 'My life was in danger'
“I'm glad I actually took that kid's knife. He would have stabbed me. He wasn't there to scare me, he was there to harm me.” Mew said. “At least I'm here. But it's unfortunate what happened and how it turned out.”
The defense's cross-examination focused on Miu's mindset during the interrogation, whether he was stressed and whether he had been given a chance to calm down before the interrogation. Miu's lawyer also highlighted his comments about self-defense and fear during his interview.
At cross, the defense acknowledged that Miu's statement about how he obtained the knife was “inaccurate.”
The defense made several attempts to get Ms. Hart to evaluate Mr. Miu's claim that she had been surrounded before the stabbing, but between rebuttals, no clear answer was obtained.
The state then asked more questions, including whether Miu had mentioned being strangled and being threatened with “10 seconds.” Hart said he did not mention them during the interview.
The defense asked, and she agreed, to clarify that just because the defendant didn't mention them didn't mean they didn't happen.
Nicolae Miu takes the stand
Miu agreed to testify and took the stand late Tuesday morning.
The defense first presented cellphone video of the altercation and asked Miu to set the scene. The video stopped when he got close to the group he was confronting.
Miu said the group told the man to “go away,” and started touching and pushing him. He stated that he feared for his safety at the time and agreed that he had a knife in his right hand.
Miu said she felt in danger when she pushed the woman who came close to his personal space.
The defense went back to some background and showed a photo of Miu recovering from heart surgery. When Miu referred to her dog as “my baby” and “my angel,” she briefly became emotional. Miu said her health was “very poor” on the day of the stabbing due to the surgery and her weight.
The defense attorney asked Miu about the knife. Miu said she was told to bring a knife to cut her line as she tubed down the river. He often wears it, calling it his “Swiss Army Knife,” and said he uses it “almost everywhere,” as he is an engineer.
The defense attorney asks if Miu was telling the truth when she told Detective Hart about the knife. To which she replied that Miu had lied about the knife. She said she had a knife with her when she went to the river to look for her phone.
Returning to the incident at the river, Miu said she was out looking for her phone when she encountered the group. When asked what she was looking for, she said she was looking for her phone. He said they then started yelling at him, calling him a “raper” and trying to find a “little girl.”
The defense attorney asks if Miu has ever told the group that he is looking for a woman, to which Miu replies, “Absolutely not, pathetic.”
Miu said she approached the group because she saw someone with a mobile phone in their bag and wanted to see if it was left behind by a friend. As he rushed up to look at his phone, he tripped and fell on one of his tubers, he said.
Miu said at one point he dropped his snorkel and goggle set and had to search around the group's tube. He said the group told him he had “10 seconds” to leave the area, but he ignored them. Miu said he was looking for a snorkel and goggles when a group of teenage boys started approaching him.
He said another group of what appeared to be adults approached him and tried to explain to one woman, Madison Cohen, what they were looking for. She said Mr. Cohen would not listen to her and told her to leave. Miu told her not to touch him because she was trying to “pull him” into her river, she said.
“He didn't even try to reprimand the children for shouting,” Miu said.
As the group got closer, Miu said she became more frightened and became so anxious that she grabbed a pocket knife. He said he took it out when they pushed and attacked him. He testified that he pulled out a knife before he was hit.
Miwa testified that her fear level was a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 just before she took the knife out of her pocket.
Miu said she didn't turn away because the group was too close.
Court breaks for lunch
After a lunch break, the defense regained its composure just before an argument broke out at the river.
Miu said she tried to push Cohen out of her “space” but didn't feel safe turning her back on the group. He said that shortly after he pushed Cohen, he punched him in the face.
He said he was “startled” and fell into the water, hitting his head on a stone in the river. Miu said that at that point, her fear level was at 10 and she was “at the very peak.” He said he had never been in a situation or fight like this in his life.
He said he tried to stand up, but felt like people were pushing him down, and also felt like something hit him on the head. He said he felt like he was being held captive by 10 people.
Miwa said she used the knife because her life was in danger. The defense asked her if she thought she could get away without using a knife, to which she said the defendant denied it.
“I couldn't even stand up. They were pushing me down, so the answer is no,” Miu said.
After using the knife, people stopped attacking him and then left, he said. He told the defense that he wasn't trying to kill anyone, that we were trying to protect ourselves.
Miu said the next day she felt pain all over her body, including her head, neck, throat and back. She said Miu watched the video of her attack and understood why her throat was sore. Because she was suffocating.
Summary of day 6
The second week of the trial has begun He was a close friend of Schuman's, along with testimony from 19-year-old Owen Peloquin, who was on the river with Schumann that day. Ms Perquin said Miu made the group “very uncomfortable” and she heard Miu say she was “something about little girls”. The defense argued that Peloquin did not tell police that he had told Miu that he was looking for a “little girl,” according to the interrogation transcript. But Peloquin said he remembers it.
Dr. Brian Meyer, a trauma surgeon at Regions Hospital in St. Paul on the day of the stabbing, testified about the extent of the injuries. Meyer said Martin's injuries were particularly striking because he had never seen a patient with such a large penetrating wound before.
Nurse Ashley Hoffman testified about her examination of Mew after the stabbing. She said the man reported being hit in the back and back of his head, but there was no pain in those areas. She also said nothing was found to suggest the man had been strangled or punched in the face.
Lead investigator John Shilts took to the stage to talk about the investigative process. Two previous witnesses, St. Croix County Sgt., then returned to the stand. Detectives Benjamin Trebien and Carlos de la Cruz of the New Richmond Police Department. Joe Tamburino, a legal expert not connected to the case, told WCCO that prosecutors are trying to use these witnesses to discredit previous testimony from members of Miu's party.
In a somewhat unusual move, the defense was allowed to call witnesses Monday afternoon, as none of the prosecution's remaining witnesses were present. St. Croix County Investigator Andrew Dittman, bystander Roberto Baldazo and Miu's friend Amanda Torres all spoke in the defense.