Apple River stabbing trial: Prosecutors play phone video

youtube - KARE ^ | April 1, 2024 | staff

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Prosecutors played smartphone video showing the interaction between Nicholae Miu and several teens on the Apple River in western Wisconsin in July 2022. Isaac Schuman was stabbed to death and four others were wounded.

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I hope this is OK. This isn't the latest and is from a TV station's youtube channel. However, I thought the video is key.

IMO it could be self defense or manslaughter. It is a maximum of 45 years for manslaughter in Wisconsin. When I grew up in Virginia, it was 5 years. The prosecutor said he could get 97 years if it runs consecutively. The way the prosecutor handled it is totally wrong. He might be guilty of something, but not murder and it shouldn't be some huge sentence for manslaughter etc. Apparently he has been in jail for 2 years, held without bond for first degree murder. He probably lost so much weight from the jail food, etc.

Looking at the video, I see him punched and knocked down. I don't see him surrounded like the defense implied. The girl was pointing for him to leave as was someone else. They were yelling stuff at him, but that was for less than a minute. According to the video and Miu's testimony, it seems like he pulled the knife before they started hitting him, and they apparently didn't notice.

I think it was self defense, but a verdict of manslaughter seems plausible. The kids were bad, but he didn't handle it well either.

[xxqqzz]

The jury asked to see the video again. Looking at the video, the girl and others were pointing for him to leave. By Miu’s testimony, he pushed the girl away with one hand and had a knife in his other hand. It was a small Swiss army knife, so they probably didn’t see it. The girl didn’t seem that close to him in the video. Then they went to the defense of the girl hitting Miu etc. The jury convicted him of battery for pushing or hitting the girl, implying that escalated the confrontation. So it could be viewed as manslaughter in that both sides had some role in starting the fight and he escalated it with the knife.

Or it could be self defense in that it was reasonable he felt threatened for his life or severe injury. He clearly was in a dangerous situation being attacked by multiple people in the water and his having a heart condition.

I don’t know what the prosecutions problem getting him held without bond for murder 1 and talking about 97 years for what he was convicted of.

No one responded, but if you look at the video it is way different from the way either side presented it at trial.

[Theo]

It sure looks like the man could have avoided this by just walking away. The kids were obnoxious, infuriatingly so, but if he had just walked away nothing would have happened.

I confess that *after watching this video* I too probably would have found him guilty.

[End Times Sentinel]

Thanks for posting this, I’d been following this, but hadn’t seen this video before.

My take, the teenagers created an outrageous situation with no provocation, and you don’t know how any person will react when they assess a situation to be life and death (when he was shoved into the river, and the wolf-pack attack). They’re nearly 100% responsible for this interaction and at most, I’d sentence Miu to time served.

A man has the right to defend himself when he encounters a situation by other’s actions that he can’t be assured their intent.

[Rdct29]

I watched a lot of the trial and I thought they all acted stupid but he was the first one to get physical. He also refused to walk away. You could see the anger on his face when they called him a raper. He even stabbed the guy trying to break up the argument. That guy wasn’t even with the group of kids. The momentary loss of his temper will cost him life in prison. He is around 54 years old. A 30 year sentence is a life sentence.