Nicolae Miu Found Guilty of Homicide in Apple River Stabbing

Nicolae Miu has been found guilty of first-degree reckless homicide after an eight day trial in St. Croix County.

The 56-year-old Prior Lake man was arrested in 2022 after a stabbing five people on the Apple River, killing 17 year old Isaac Schuman in the process. Miu was also found guilty on four counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety involving the four victims who were not killed and battery.

During the trial, Miu’s attorney Corey Chirafisi argued that he was acting in self-defense when he attacked the victims. They claimed that Miu was looking for a friend’s phone and approached the group, claiming they told him to get out, tried to push him down, and one even tried to pull his swim trunks down.

In his closing argument, Chirafisi painted the scene as a group of drunk teenagers who saw an opportunity to torment a man who was by himself for no discernible purpose other than to be cruel.

St. Croix County District Attorney Karl Anderson reportedly played a video of the incident, which showed Miu running towards the last victim, Dante Carlson, and stabbing him with nobody else nearby at the time. Anderson argued that if Miu had feared for his life, he could have left the scene at that moment instead of attacking Carlson.

Anderson also argued that the video showed Schuman had not been involved in the altercation until he tried to help the victims who had already been stabbed. Schuman allegedly pushed Miu away before being stabbed himself.

In the end, the St. Croix County jury decided on first-degree reckless homicide charges rather than the original first-degree intentional homicide charges.