HUDSON, Wisconsin — A Minnesota man has been convicted of the murder of a high school student and the stabbing deaths of four other people who were tubing on a western Wisconsin river, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday.
A judge also sentenced Nicolae Miu, 54, to six years of extended supervision after his release from prison following the July 2022 stabbings along the Apple River in St. Croix County, which straddles the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
A jury convicted Miuof Prior Lake, Minnesota, was convicted in April of first-degree manslaughter, four counts of first-degree endangering safety, and one count of assault.
Prosecutors had sought a 70-year prison sentence for Miu for the stabbing that killed him Isaac Schuman17, of Stillwater, Minnesota, and injured four others. The stabbing occurred while Miu and the victims were tubing in separate groups along the Apple River.
Investigators said Miu attacked after people accused him of approaching children in the water. Miu told investigators he was using a snorkel and goggles to search for a lost cell phone. He told investigators he felt threatened and acted in self-defense.
Miu pulled out a knife and started stabbing people after being challenged by Schuman and his friends, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported, citing court documents.
St. Croix County District Judge R. Michael Waterman said two of the victims who survived their stab wounds would have died without the quick attention of other tubers and emergency workers. He said all of the survivors suffered “permanent disfigurements.”
Waterman said Miu “made a series of very bad decisions” after being “confronted with words and crude insults.”
“He fled the scene and left his victims to die as he carelessly floated past them and the emergency services as if nothing had happened,” the judge said, noting that Miu was arrested as he tried to leave the scene in his car.
Miu’s attorney, Aaron Nelson, asked the court for a “measured response” in sentencing. He said the defense understands and appreciates the “heartbreaking loss” of the Schuman family and other victims.