First week of Nicolae Miu's Apple River stabbing trial ends with testimony from his friends, coworkers
HUDSON, Wis. — The first week of Nicolae Miu's Apple River stabbing trial has come to an end.
Miu, of Prior Lake, Minnesota, stabbed five people on the river in Wisconsin on July 30, 2022. A 17-year-old boy, Isaac Schuman, died in the stabbing and four others were injured. The victims ranged in age from 17 to 24 and were from Wisconsin and Minnesota.
WATCH LIVE: Week 2 of Nicolae Miu's Apple River stabbing trial underway
The prosecution aims to prove that Miu, 54, was the aggressor. Miu's legal team is arguing he stabbed the five people in self-defense.
Miu is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Schuman's death, and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the stabbings of Ryhley Mattison, A.J. Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson. He pleaded not guilty to all charges in September 2022.
Gilma Constanza testifies
Due to technical issues with Court TV, video from the court was delayed.
The first witness of the day, Gilma Constanza, testified through a Spanish interpreter.
She was on the river that day and testified that she saw Miu discard something on the side of the river following the stabbings, but did not know what it was. She said he seemed "white and pale" after the stabbings.
Alba Torres testifies, video appears to show Miu tubing with his group after stabbings
Next up was witness Alba Torres, who also testified through a Spanish interpreter. She was part of the group that was tubing with Miu on the day of the stabbings. She said she had known Miu for five or six years before the stabbings and considers him a friend.
She was asked about the moment that a cell phone was lost — which Miu claimed he was looking for on the river before the stabbings — and the disturbance that occurred afterward. She said she didn't see the altercation, but saw the aftermath.
Torres said she was told to call 911 because "something was going on." She said one person in their group, Eric Von Williams, went to help the injured. Williams testified earlier in the trial.
Torres said that Miu later returned to the group and appeared to look normal. At that point, they did not know that Miu had stabbed multiple people, but he told them that he had been pushed by a group.
A cell phone video from Torres was shown that appears to show Miu, who had a jacket on, tubing down the river with the group after the stabbings, heading to the exit on the river. In the video, Torres believed a person on the shore may have been the suspect, but it turned out to be an employee of the tubing company.
Sergio Ruiz Leyva testifies
After a mid-morning break, Sergio Ruiz Leyva took the stand. Leyva, who spoke through a Spanish interpreter, was also with Miu's group on the day of the stabbings.
He said he remembered when one of the group members, Ariel, lost their phone. Ariel said it wasn't a big deal because he had insurance, but Miu insisted on trying to retrieve it.
Leyva said that Miu looked for the phone anyway.
Leyva said he later saw the group around Miu and couldn't see much because there were so many people. But he said he did remember seeing a woman in a black leotard telling Miu to "go, go, go" and that he saw Miu push her. He said he later saw Miu get pushed to the ground.
He said he was watching from a distance because he didn't leave his tube to approach the group.
Leyva said, from his position, he could see some blood on some of the stabbing victims, but that it was hard to see from the distance. He said that one of the stabbing victims told a person in his group to call 911. He said he turned away from the victims because it was hard to look at.
When Miu came back to the group, Leyva said that he heard through another person in the group that Miu had his knife taken away. He said Miu looked "pale" when he returned, with his "eyes wide open." But not much was said after that. Leyva said Miu put back on his hat and jacket.
Tatiana Ruiz Leyva testifies
Tatiana Ruiz Leyva, who was with Miu's group on the day of the stabbing, gave a brief testimony on Friday morning. She also spoke through an interpreter.
She recalled seeing people with bloody injuries, but didn't see what led up to the incident. She said when Miu came back towards her group, he was acting normally.
Titiana Ruiz Leyva also recalled hearing a girl yelling for help. She had a hand on her stomach, she testified. After seeing that, she said she called for police.
Ernesto Chaguez testifies
In a slightly unusual circumstance Friday, the defense called a witness: Ernesto Chaguez. The judge allowed Chaguez to testify because he needed an interpreter to testify, and the interpreter was in the courtroom Friday.
Chaguez said he had been friends with Miu for about 10 years, and Miu would regularly come over to his house. Miu was a handyman, he said, and often helped fix things around the home.
Chaguez said he asked Miu to bring his pocketknife during their tubing trip to help cut the cords at the end of the ride.
Chaguez recalled seeing a group of people shouting at Miu, and saw Miu in the water, and someone was hitting him. He heard Miu's wife, Sandi, say that Miu needed help. When Miu walked back towards him, Chaguez said he "looked worried and he was pale." Chaguez added that he had never seen Miu scared before. Chaguez recounted that while Miu was walking past him, he pointed at a man and told him to "stay there, stay there" in order to keep him away from Miu.
Afterwards, the float down the river was totally quiet, he said. Nobody talked until they got to the exit, where they were met by police. The police came over and asked Miu to come with them.
During the prosecution's cross-examination, Chaguez clarified that he didn't see anything before Miu was in the water. He also didn't see any injuries on Miu.
Chaguez recalled telling police that Miu is "a big guy, he was in the army, he doesn't need a knife to defend himself." Chaguez wasn't completely sure about Miu's military service, but knew that Miu lived in a communist country where military service was mandatory.
The court then went on lunch break in the middle of the prosecution's cross-examination.
The prosecution continued cross-examination, pressing back on the fact that Chaguez told police that someone took Miu's knife out of his pocket. He told the officer that 17 times, the prosecution said.
The prosecution also walked through video footage which showed Chaguez entered the water near Miu, and asked to clarify who exactly he told to "stay there, stay there." Chaguez had a hard time remembering who it was, and also didn't recall seeing two victims, who were shown in the video.
During recross, the defense brought up Chaguez's English language proficiency, and he clarified that he preferred to communicate complex topics in Spanish. When he was speaking to the police officer on the day of the stabbing, he was speaking in English, Chaguez said.
There were times during his examination that he responded to questions in English, and the prosecution asked if he was comfortable speaking in English. Chaguez said that sometimes he understands, and sometimes he does not.
Finally, the defense asked Chaguez to clarify his statement about Miu serving in the military. Chaguez said he did not know how old Miu was when he immigrated to the U.S., and did not have actual knowledge if he ever served in the military.
Witness sequestration order
After Chaguez's testimony, the prosecution brought to the judge's attention that a key witness had not followed the court's order, and was watching a live stream of the trial.
The prosecution said they had given written and verbal instruction to the witnesses not to watch or consume any media surrounding the trial, as it could change their testimony. However, the next witness, Ariel Chaguez-Layet, refused to meet with the prosecution so was not aware of the instruction not to watch any media.
The defense said that they didn't give the sequestration order to the Spanish-speaking witnesses, which they told the judge was "an oversight."
The judge brought in the Spanish-speaking witnesses and told them that they were not to watch a live stream or any media analysis. All of the witnesses said they understood his order.
Ariel Chaguez-Layet testifies
Next on the stand was Ariel Chaguez-Layet, Ernesto Chaguez' cousin. He'd known Miu for about 5 years and described him as a friend.
Chaguez-Layet described his experience on the Apple River on the day of the stabbing. He said he saw someone pushing Miu down into the water, and a woman came over after to hit him. On the other side of the river, he said he saw a man with an injury to the stomach.
He said he started walking towards the group because he was worried about Miu. The people around him were "slapping him with the hands," Chaguez-Layet described, through an interpreter. He said Miu defended himself, but because everything happened so quickly, he couldn't recall exactly what happened. At one point he said he got close to Miu and touched him on the arm.
However, the prosecution pressed him on the last point: Chaguez-Layet, when he spoke to police, said he never got close to Miu. Police later confronted Chaguez-Layet with a photo of him up close to Miu, and Chaguez-Layet told the prosecution that he denied to police that he had seen anything up close.
The prosecution also asked if Chaguez-Layet was out in the hallway watching a live stream of the trial. He said he was sitting on a bench on the other side of the hall, and denied watching a video. He also testified that he was told by the defense not to watch any media coverage of the trial.
Amber Lind testifies
The last witness on Friday was Amber Lind, a forensic scientist from the Wisconsin state crime lab.
She said she examined the DNA evidence from the case. She examined Miu's knife, which had strong support for DNA inclusion from Isaac Schuman and Dante Carlson.
She also said that the knife was "uninformative" for Miu's DNA, even though it was something he carried around every day.
Day 4 recap
On Thursday, more body cam footage was shown during the trial that captured the chaos as police arrived on the river.
The first footage on day four was from John Ferrell, a sergeant with the Somerset Police Department and licensed emergency medical responder. In the footage, people are seen walking up the riverbank, some crying and others yelling that people have been stabbed.
It wasn't shown on video, but Ferrell said he later assisted in CPR on Schuman and said responders needed to use a backboard on inner tubes to get Schuman to an ambulance.
St. Croix County deputy Benjamin Trebian's testimony offered the jury the first look at Miu's arrest.
Trebian's body camera footage, played in court, showed Miu in handcuffs. Officers can be heard verifying he matched the description of the suspect.
Trebian testified that he was given a photo of the suspect in trunks during the search, and when Miu was arrested he was wearing a shirt, hat and glasses, as well. Miu also had "cuts and nicks on knuckles and on his hands," Trebian said.
Trebian also told the defense he "didn't notice any signs" of intoxication in his interactions with Miu. He told the prosecution Miu was "kind of in a trance-like state almost."
Mitchell Schaeppi, an investigator for the St. Croix County Sheriff's Office, testified that he found the knife used in the stabbing on the river ledge, on a "muddy section of a shoreline." The knife was closed, he said.
Schaeppi opened a box containing the knife and showed it to the courtroom, entering it as evidence into the trial.
The prosecution is expected to call to the stand 44 witnesses over the course of the trial.
MORE: Day 3 of Nicolae Miu's Apple River stabbing trial brings more victim testimony, new video
WCCO will have live coverage throughout the trial which you can watch in the live player above, via CBS News Minnesota, Pluto TV or the CBS News app on your phone or connected TV.