Throughout Nicolae Miu’s murder trial, several witnesses have testified that his confrontation with tubers on western Wisconsin’s Apple River became heated after he mentioned something about “little girls.” It turned violent after he either punched or slapped a woman in the face, they said.
On Monday, the sixth day of the Miu’s jury trial in St. Croix Circuit Court in Hudson, his defense attorneys continued to try and rebut those claims by asserting that tubers within Isaac Schuman’s group fanned the flames by calling Miu a “pedophile” and “raper” while he was looking for his friend’s lost cellphone. Through questioning, Miu’s attorneys raised that several witnesses did not tell investigators that Miu said anything about “little girls.”
Miu, 54, is on trial for fatally stabbing Schuman, 17, of Stillwater, and seriously injuring four other tubers during the confrontation in Somerset on July 30, 2022.
Miu’s attorney Aaron Nelson said during his opening statement on April 1 that Miu responded in self-defense after he was “attacked” and “outnumbered” and “feared for his life.”
Miu, of Prior Lake, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Schuman’s killing and attempted first-degree intentional homicide for wounding others who were not in the teen’s group — Ryhley Mattison, then 24, of Burnsville; A.J. Martin, then 22, of Elk River; and brothers Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson, who were both in their early 20s and from Luck, Wis.
‘He punched a woman’
First to testify for the prosecution Monday was Owen Peloquin, one of Schuman’s best friends. The 19-year-old from Afton said they were sitting in their innertubes when Miu “weirdly sprinted at us, made us super uncomfortable.” He said Miu grabbed a hold of their tubes, which were tied together, and that he told him to get away.
When asked what they told Miu, Peloquin said, “We were calling him a pedophile, because at one point he did say something about little girls, couldn’t really make out fully what he said, but I heard him say something about little girls. That didn’t sit right with any of us.”
Peloquin said he didn’t see Miu hit a woman from another group of tubers, Madison Coen, but he heard it and saw her stumble backward. The alleged assault was not captured on a nearly 3½-minute cellphone video of the confrontation taken by Schuman’s friend Jawahn Cockfield.
St. Croix County District Attorney Karl E. Anderson, left, and defense attorney Corey Chirafisi approach the bench of St. Croix County Circuit Court Judge R. Michael Waterman during the trial of Nicolae Miu Friday, April 5, 2024 at the St. Croix County Circuit Court in Hudson, Wis. (Aaron Lavinsky / Pool via Star Tribune)
In his nearly half-hour cross-examination of Peloquin, defense attorney Corey Chirafisi tried to get across to jurors that Schuman’s group had been taunting Miu. Chirafisi displayed still photos from the cellphone video, showing several in Schuman’s group standing around Miu, yelling, laughing and pointing at him.
“Do you believe your actions there with the rest of your friends are taunting him?” Chirafisi asked.
“It could be considered that, yeah,” Peloquin said.
“You’re taunting him because you’re feeling more confident and brave because of the other people, right?” Chirafisi asked.
“That’s one reason, yes,” Peloquin said.
Chirafisi asked Peloquin what he meant when he told an investigator that “everyone got on (Miu’s) ass.”
“That means, people hit him, because he punched a woman,” Peloquin said.
Chirafisi asked Peloquin if he recalled telling an investigator that Schuman never went toward Miu, then showed a video still photo of someone with their hand around Miu’s throat.
“Can you tell by the gold bracelet on the left wrist that that’s Isaac Schuman?” Chirafisi asked.
“I don’t really know whose bracelet that is,” Peloquin said.
“But you are able to say that that person’s got him around the throat, right?” Chirafisi asked.
“It does look that way,” Peloquin said.
State to call two more witnesses
St. Croix County sheriff’s investigator John Shilts, who was the lead investigator on the case, said he spoke with Schuman’s group near the stabbing site — Peloquin, Ryan Nelson and Alex Vang. He said they did not appear to be intoxicated, so he did not get blood-alcohol content readings from them. All three testified last week they had been drinking and smoking marijuana while on the river.
Under cross-examination by the defense, Shilts said no one in Schuman’s group told him anything about Miu saying that he was “looking for little girls,” as one of the men is heard yelling in the cellphone video. Shilts said other people told him that, but no one in Schuman’s group.
Shilts said he did not did not see any marks on Coen’s face that indicated she had been struck.
The defense then called one of its witnesses because the prosecution was through with their witnesses for the day.
St. Croix County sheriff’s investigator Andrew Dittman was asked about his interview of Cockfield, specifically whether Cockfield had mentioned that Miu was “looking for little girls.” Dittman said Cockfield did not.
The prosecution asked Dittman if he recalled Schuman’s group telling him in interviews that the incident turned physical after Miu punched Coen.
“Yes,” he said. “From my recollection, that’s when I was told that chaos ensued, was when the punch was thrown.”
The trial, which is expected to run through Friday, resumes Tuesday morning.
The prosecution told Judge R. Micheel Waterman they have two witnesses remaining yet to call to the stand: Victor Froloff of the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office and St. Croix County sheriff’s Lt. Brandie Hart, who interviewed Miu the night of the stabbings.
The trial then shifts to the defense.
It’s unclear whether Miu will testify. He’s been jailed in lieu of a $2 million bond since the stabbings. If convicted of the intentional murder charge, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
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