“I was surrounded. People were coming at me. I just came up a couple of times, being punched in the head, punched in the mouth. I fell on river rocks, I was in pain, I was afraid for my life,” 54-year-old Nicolae Miu said.
A man who allegedly stabbed five people in a deadly confrontation during a tubing excursion took to the stand Wednesday at his murder trial. He says he thought they were going to kill him.
“I was surrounded. People were coming at me. I just came up a couple of times being punched in the head, punched in the mouth. I fell on river rocks, I was in pain, I was afraid for my life,” Nicolae Miu said. “I did what I had to do to defend myself.”
One of the teens 54-year-old Miu stabbed, 17-year-old Isaac Schuman, bled to death.
A video taken during the incident at a popular tubing spot on the Apple River in Hudson, Wisconsin, shows Miu being attacked by the teens, who believed he was hassling them. In the video, one of the teens asked the man, “You looking for little girls?”
Miu pulled out a knife and lashed out.
Miu, a mechanical engineer, is claiming self-defense, but prosecutors say his actions after the stabbing were those of a guilty person. Miu fled the scene, threw away his knife, and when he was arrested, he told police saying he did not see anybody injured.
Miu claimed the youths had knives.
“If this was self-defense, why wouldn't you just stand there, have someone call 911 with your knife in your hand and say, ‘These guys attacked me, I was scared and I defended myself,’” Court TV anchor Ted Rowlands tells Inside Edition.
The knife used in the incident was presented in court.
“That’s the knife I used to defend myself with,” Miu said.
In closing arguments, Miu’s attorney said it was a case of 13 against one.
“They swore at him, they put their hands on him,” the attorney said. “They punch him, they slap him.”
The prosecution claims Miu was not afraid, just angry.
If convicted, Miu could face life in prison.
