Father of teen stabbed to death on Apple River by knife-wielding Wisconsin engineer, 54, chokes back tears after guilty verdict

The father of the teenager who was stabbed to death at Apple River by a Wisconsin engineer has made a heartbreaking statement outside court following the verdict.

Donny Hernandez choked back tears as he thanked those who have supported his family since Nicolae Miu, 54, butchered his son Isaac Schuman, 17, in September 2022.

“I just want to thank all of our supporters, our family, law enforcement, people that have supported us that we don’t even know across the country, the state of Minnesota, wherever,” Hernandez said.

‘It’s been 21 months we’ve been waiting for justice for Isaac Michael Schuman and we got it today… I appreciate your love and support.

Hernandez held on as he fought not to break down before saying again, ‘Justice for Isaac.’

Miu was found guilty Thursday morning of first-degree reckless homicide after killing Isaac on Apple River in Wisconsin during a bloody rampage in which he also stabbed several other teenagers with a Swiss Army knife.

The Romanian-American engineer was also found guilty of lesser charges of stabbing and injuring three boys and a girl.

Miu’s rampage came after he was surrounded by a large group of rowdy teenagers as he ran down the river, with several of them pushing him around while accusing him of ‘looking at a girl’.

He sat silently with his head bowed when the verdict was read out after less than a day’s reflection. The trial lasted eight days as more than three dozen witnesses took the stand.

The families of Miu’s victims were heard breathing a sigh of relief, KARE11 reporter Lou Raguse said. As he was led away afterwards, Miu was seen turning to glare at his surviving victims and their families.

First-degree reckless homicide was the third option for jurors, after first-degree intentional homicide and second-degree murder. It carries a penalty of up to 60 years in prison.

Miu said he had been looking for a friend’s lost phone in the river when the teenagers falsely accused him of being a pedophile who took pictures of young girls.

A horrifying video of the interaction showed the teenagers heckling Miu before he pulled out a Swiss Army knife and began slashing them.

One of the teenagers, Owen Peloquin, said he did not see Isaac being stabbed but dragged him to shore when he saw him surrounded by a growing pool of his own blood in the water.

“I tried my best to stop the bleeding,” Peloquin told the court as he became visibly emotional.

Schuman was taken by ambulance to Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, where he was pronounced dead.

Four more teenagers were stabbed in the shocking rampage – Ryhley Mattinson, AJ Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson.

Mattinson had to have emergency surgery and when she arrived her blood alcohol level was 0.09.

Carlson suffered penetrating trauma from his stab wounds and had to have a hernia repaired, and his blood alcohol level was also 0.09.

Testifying in court on Monday, Peloquin said Miu ‘just weirdly kind of sprinted at us, just made us all super uncomfortable.’

Miu’s lawyer argued he acted in self-defense, while prosecutors said he could have dispatched his attackers by flashing his knife without resorting to violence.

On Tuesday, Miu took the stand and described how he feared for his life after they ‘surrounded him like wolves’ on the day of the attack.

When asked about the violent confrontation, Miu said he had ‘tunnel vision’ and was ‘in a fog’ during the heated situation.

He said that before interacting with the group, he had “volunteered” to look for a friend’s lost phone in the water before interacting with the teenagers.

When shown photos and video from that day, Miu said he was touched by Madison Coen and Mattison before the knife was pulled.

He then said that as the interaction with the teenagers continued, his fear ‘grew up’ as they began to laugh and shout around him.

‘They were very close, they were really close to me. I could feel and hear them, Miu said.

Miu described how he reached for his pocketknife as his fear became ‘really high’ just before Madison put her hand on his upper arm.

In taped interviews, Miu said, “Suddenly they were like wolves around me and they were attacking me from all directions and I really, really feared for my life.”

‘They came to me. They hit me, they got on top of me, and I don’t remember anything after that’.

During his evidence, he said he did not know how many people attacked him, but he knew there were ‘more than he could handle’ and that he has had ‘nightmares’ since.

A witness, Larrion Davis, later told investigators he saw the attacker ‘taking pictures of girls’ in the area.

But when he took the stand last week, Davis seemed confused by that claim, admitting he wasn’t sure what he was seeing because “there was a lot going on.”

Miu’s then-wife Sondra told detectives the heated argument began after Miu, whose group was further up the river, went back to find a ‘phone that was lost’ while wearing snorkel gear.

As he watched, Sondra said a ‘group of guys got off their pipes and started beating’ him.

Miu pleaded not guilty to the charges in September 2022.

He was originally born in Romania and immigrated to the United States when he was a teenager.

Sondra and Miu divorced after the incident and he ‘lived a peaceful, quiet life in Minnesota’ and ‘had never been in trouble before’.