Witnesses, officers describe chaotic scene after Apple River stabbing

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
Updated ·6 min read
1

A nurse who was tubing on western Wisconsin’s Apple River and found Isaac Schuman with a stab wound described on Thursday how she and others tried to save the Stillwater teen from dying.

Andrea Baldazo, a registered nurse from Forest Lake, was among the first to testify on the fourth day of the St. Croix County Circuit Court trial of Nicolae Miu, who is charged with fatally stabbing the 17-year-old Schuman and injuring four others during a river confrontation with tubers in Somerset on July 30, 2022.

After realizing Schuman was injured and in need of help near the water’s edge, Baldazo got off her tube and “Army crawled” through the shallow water, she said. Schuman’s eyes were open, but not blinking. He was not breathing.

“I started chest compressions right away and continued that for a long time,” Baldazo said, recalling that she and others took turns giving CPR, singing the children’s song “Baby Shark” to keep a steady rhythm.

Miu stabbed Schuman in the chest with great force, cutting through two ribs and slicing his heart, prosecutors said Monday. He died almost immediately.

Baldazo’s testimony was part of the prosecution’s shift Thursday from witness accounts of the violent encounter to the response, including law enforcement’s arrival at the scene and Miu’s arrest at Village Park about a mile downstream an hour later.

Prosecutors called Somerset police officers and several sheriff’s deputies who responded to the scene. Clips from their body-worn camera videos were played to the jury.

Miu, 54, of Prior Lake, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Schuman’s death and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the stabbings of Rhyley 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.

Miu claimed he acted in self-defense after being attacked by a large group of angry and intoxicated tubers who accused him of being a “pedophile” while he was looking for a lost cellphone and carrying a snorkel and goggles. Miu’s attorney, Aaron Nelson, told jurors during Monday’s opening statement that he was “outnumbered” and “feared for his life.”

St. Croix County District Attorney Karl Anderson told Judge R. Michael Waterman on Thursday that the state expects to rest its case Monday or Tuesday. The trial in Hudson will then shift to defense attorneys’ witnesses. It’s unclear whether Miu will testify.

Confrontation

Janell Duxbury, who was the first to testify Thursday, said she was napping while floating on the river with a group that included Madison Coen, the Carlsons and Mattison. Duxbury said she was awakened by Mattison telling her, “Hey, let’s go check it out.”

Duxbury said she heard Coen yelling at Miu, then the right side of Coen’s face turn toward her “and she kind of stumbled down and got back up and then walked away.”

“Did you see Mr. Miu’s hand or fist make contact with Maddie’s face?” Deputy District Attorney Brian Smestad asked Duxbury.

“I did not see it make contact, no,” she said.

Duxbury said she saw “a lot of chaos and yelling” and then Dante Carlson run up to Miu and punch him while yelling, “Never hit a woman!” Miu punched him back, then stabbed Mattison.

“I thought it was like a little punch towards her ribs, until he had removed his hand,” Duxbury said. “I saw the knife come out of my friend’s side.”

In cross-examination, Miu’s attorney Corey Chirafisi asked whether she had said in her interview with law enforcement that her group approached Miu to “build a wall.” She said she did.

Duxbury said that Coen, before she was punched, was in Miu’s face and yelling and swearing at him to go away.

Miu was not being aggressive toward Mattison before the stabbing, Duxbury said. She described Miu as being “very expressionless, hollow, almost like a demonic look in his face. I don’t know how else to describe it other than his eyes did not look human.”

Upon further questioning by Chirafisi, Duxbury said there were approximately 13 people around Miu at the time.

Miu’s arrest

The testimony then turned to law enforcement and body-camera video.

St. Croix County sheriff’s Sgt. Chase Durand said that when he arrived on scene he saw two stabbing victims: a man, who was up and walking, and a woman lying on an inner tube in the river.

Prosecution played a clip of Durands’ body-cam video, which turned on as he entered the water. He approached a group of three people who were helping Martin, who had been stabbed in the stomach. “We’re here for you,” a woman told Martin as she gripped his right hand.

Durand asked a man standing in the river if had information about the suspect. He told the deputy the suspect is “5-9, 5-10, a Russian-looking guy.” Another bystander said the suspect was in his 50s or 60s. Durand relayed the information over his radio.

Deputy Benjamin Trebian’s body-cam video then gave jurors a look at Miu’s arrest. A deputy is seen placing handcuffs on Miu, who is wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap, swim trunks and a long-sleeve camouflage shirt. He tells Miu that he is “just being detained at this point, OK?” “Yes,” Miu replied.

Trebian noted markings on Miu’s hands, and testified that he took photos for potential evidence.

In cross-examination, Nelson asked Trebian if the marks on Miu’s hands could have been from falling into a river and hitting rocks or the river bottom. “Potentially,” the deputy said.

Upon questioning, Trebian said he did not notice any signs that Miu had been drinking alcohol.

In redirect examination by Smestad, Trebian said that Miu did not approach law enforcement officers before his arrest. He appeared to be in a “trance-like state, almost,” the deputy said.

Nelson then asked Trebian during re-cross examination whether victims of violent crime can express a “trance-like state.” “Potentially, yes,” the deputy said.

The prosecution also played a body-cam clip in which sheriff’s Lt. Mitch Thomason told Miu, while in the back of a squad car, that he was “being arrested for homicide and attempted homicide.”

According to the criminal complaint against Miu, he told sheriff’s Lt. Brandie Hart later in his formal interview that he did not know what happened to the people who confronted him.

“I told Nic that four individuals sustained injuries and one person died,” Hart wrote in the complaint. “Nic said, ‘Oh no’ and asked if the individuals sustained injuries because they were fighting with each other.”

The knife

Sheriff’s office investigator Mitchell Schaeppi testified they found the murder weapon — a folding pocketknife with a black handle and silver blade — in a muddy section of a shoreline. He then opened a cardboard box with the knife, showing it to the courtroom, blade exposed.

In his interview with Hart, Miu said he didn’t bring a knife to the river. However, his wife told another investigator that he had a knife with him — and a cellphone video played in court Monday showed him with his hand in his pocket, then holding the knife.

Related Articles