Star Tribune
Nicolae Miu’s attorneys suggest victims provoked fatal Apple River stabbing
A defense attorney for a Nicolae Miu, accused of first-degree intentional homicide in a 2022 mass stabbing on the Apple River, asked a prosecution witness Monday morning if his group’s “taunting” of Miu provoked the stabbing.
Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi hammered at Owen Peloquin of Afton, who was a rising senior at Stillwater High School when he went on a tubing trip in July 2022 that ended in the stabbing death of Stillwater teen Isaac Schuman.
Peloquin testified that his group was floating the Wisconsin river when they spotted Miu, then 52, alone in the knee-deep water. One in the group shouted that Miu, of Prior Lake, was a “raper.”
“He was looking really weird, and we were kids,” Peloquin testified.
Chirafisi intimated Peloquin’s group was responsible for the escalation because they were recording it on cell phones, and that they easily could have floated past Miu instead of accosting him.
Miu, who is standing trial in St. Croix County Circuit Court, also faces four counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the stabbings of four others that day. He faces the possibility of life in prison.
Throughout the trial, Miu’s attorneys have consistently questioned defense witnesses about their behavior that day, portraying them as unnecessarily antagonistic toward Miu. Miu’s attorneys have questioned prosecution witnesses about why they began calling Miu a pedophile.
Several in Schuman’s group testified they heard Miu say he was “looking for little girls,” blaming that comment on starting the confrontation. But Chirafisi has pointed out the “little girls” comment wasn’t captured on video and that witnesses didn’t mention it to police after the incident.
On Monday, the sixth day of trial, Peloquin testified Miu saying “something about little girls” sparked the confrontation.
“Couldn’t really make out fully what he said, but I heard him say something about little girls, and that didn’t sit right with any of us,” Peloquin testified. “We were screaming at him, ‘Pedophile, get out of here!’ ‘You’re a weirdo!’ What a normal person would do.”
But Chirafisi continued to insinuate it was Schuman’s group that instigated the fatal confrontation.
“It was all so quick,” Peloquin replied. “We were just young kids that were curious what was going on, and we wanted to see it finish what we were seeing.”
“You wanted to see it finish because it was on tape, right?” Chirafisi questioned. “Jawahn Cockfield was videotaping this entire thing, isn’t he? You wanted to see how this tape played out.”
“I wouldn’t say we ever did it just for, like, a camera, like a video,” Peloquin said, adding that his group observed Miu talking with two young women and didn’t want to leave them alone until they observed how the conversation played out because “he scared us.”
Chirafisi showed stills from a video of the confrontation, showing several in Schuman’s group surrounding Miu, pointing and chanting at him.
Chirafisi: “Do you believe your actions there with the rest of your friends are taunting him?”
Peloquin: “It could be considered that, yeah.”
Chirafisi: “Would you agree the more you guys are calling him names — pedophile, predator — the higher the temperature is getting? Meaning the more aggravated people are getting?”
Peloquin: “I don’t know other people’s feelings… By the end, I was in complete shock because I saw a bunch of people stabbed.”
Also on Monday morning, the surgeon who tended to A.J. Martin, one of the victims who survived, testified that the case stood out from all the previous trauma incidents he’d worked on.
“I’ve not had a patient with that large of a penetrating wound previously,” said the surgeon, Brian Myer.
Martin had previously testified that he told the surgeon he was going to die. Martin’s heart stopped for nine minutes on the helicopter en route to the hospital, and then again in the hospital. He spent 27 days in the hospital and had multiple follow-up surgeries.
The trial before St. Croix County Circuit Court judge R. Michael Waterman is expected to last through the end of this week.
Minneapolis leaders gathered in an Uptown intersection Monday to celebrate the reopening of a part of Hennepin Avenue south of downtown that had been closed for reconstruction since April.
Beginning Tuesday, the reconstructed portion of Hennepin Avenue between West Lake Street and West 26th Street will be reopened to traffic. On Wednesday, five MetroTransit bus routes will return to Hennepin Avenue South.
The two-year $34 million dollar project was sorely needed in an area of the city that had not undergone construction in more than 65 years, leaders said. Above ground, sidewalks and streets were ripped out and replaced. Below ground, major utility work took place including the removal and upgrading of Xcel Energy electrical and CenterPoint natural gas lines.
“You’ve got multiple years worth of construction, its hard. We greatly appreciate everyone’s patience,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said during a Monday news conference. “Uptown is coming back. This is part of it.”
Frey thanked business owners and residents for bearing with the reconstruction.
The final improvements will boost safety for pedestrians, drivers and cyclists, said Minneapolis City Council Vice president Aisha Chughtai.
“All investments in infrastructure are generational, they improve that community. And just like this street hasn’t been reconstructed in about 70 years, this this reconstruction is building for the next 70, the next chapter of Uptown,” she said.
The construction headaches have frustrated businesses and residents in an area that has faced challenge after challenge in recent years. Bulldozers and ripped up pavement have led to many Uptown stores and restaurants seeing reduced foot traffic. But with a critical portion of the street reopening this week — just in time for the holiday season — local businesses could see a much needed jump in diners and customers.
Not much remains today of Camp Snoopy, the woodsy indoor theme park where Charlie Brown and the gang once came to life inside the Mall of America.
Curious Minnesota recently did a dive into what happened to the beloved theme park and how Nickelodeon Universe came to be.
The giant red dog bowl where groups met up, the Snoopy bounce house, the whimsical fountain — all were replaced years ago by the characters and branding of Nickelodeon Universe.
But Camp Snoopy still conjures nostalgic memories for the people who grew up visiting this unique attraction. People at the mall can still experience pieces of the original park, like the Log Chute.
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Star Tribune
Mankato police and city officials meet with Muslim community at Islamic Center of Mankato
MANKATO – City and police officials attempted to reassure members of the Muslim community of Mankato recently after concerns about a suspected arson at a mosque.
“Every single Mankatoan has value and should feel safe,” said Jeremy Clifton, Mankato’s recently appointed director of public safety, before a gathering of about 40 attendees at the Islamic Center of Mankato on Friday.
Last week, members at the mosque said a man attempted to set part of their mosque on fire as part of a “brazen” act on Sunday afternoon. The Mankato police, however, said the Islamic Center of Mankato had not faced any threat, and a man was simply lighting firecrackers.
Clifton on Friday said the man who lit firecrackers near the mosque apologized.
The public safety director added that he will have better communication with leaders in the Muslim community in the future.
The man, who was not identified, has been cited for sale, possession and use of prohibited fireworks, a misdemeanor, the Mankato Department of Public Safety said in a statement last week.
People gathered at the mosque for Friday prayers said they felt Mankato police had downplayed their concerns. Abdi Sabrie, a co-founder and board member of the mosque, said many in the Muslim community in Mankato worry about their safety after the reelection of Donald Trump. He said the president-elect’s first term led to an increase in anti-Muslim vandalism attempts in Minnesota.
In 2016, a shirtless man attempted to tear down the Islamic Center’s sign, and in 2021, two vandals spray-painted slurs on a car owned by a member of the mosque.
