Nicolae Miu, who was found guilty in April of fatally stabbing 17-year-old Isaac Schuman and wounding four other tubers on western Wisconsin’s Apple River in 2022, could be sentenced on Wednesday to 96 years and three months in prison.

That’s if St. Croix County Circuit Court Judge R. Michael Waterman decides that Miu, 54, of Prior Lake, deserves the maximum penalties allowed under Wisconsin law. The reckless homicide conviction carries a maximum penalty of 45 years in prison, followed by 20 years of extended supervision. He also is being sentenced for four convictions of first-degree recklessly endangering safety with a dangerous weapon and one for misdemeanor battery with use of a dangerous weapon; those convictions carry penalties of up to 12½ each and 15 months, respectively, said St. Croix County District Attorney Karl Anderson.

Miu will be sentenced in St. Croix County Circuit Court in Hudson at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, two years and a day after his fatal confrontation with two groups of tubers in Somerset.

The hearing will start with victim-impact statements, which are expected to last an hour. The State will then make its argument, followed by the defense, and then the judge will hand down the sentence, Anderson said.

The sentencing hearing, except for the victim-impact statements, will be livestreamed on local TV news stations and Court TV.

Miu testified at his trial in April that he feared for his life and acted in self-defense on July 30, 2022, when he fatally stabbed Schuman, of Stillwater, and seriously injured tubers not in the teen’s group.

Ryhley Mattison, then 24, of Burnsville; A.J. Martin, then 22, of Elk River; and brothers Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson, both in their early 20s, of Luck, Wis., all suffered puncture or slash wounds in the abdomen or upper torso.

During the trial, Miu’s attorneys tried to portray a scene in which Miu was surrounded by a drunken, angry mob who called him a “pedophile” and “raper” and attacked him. Miu said he was carrying a snorkel and goggles while looking for a friend’s lost cellphone contained in a waterproof floating bag and that he feared for his life during the confrontation.

The prosecution argued that Miu had multiple opportunities to walk away from the taunting teens, and that the confrontation only turned violent after he became angry and punched Madison Coen, who was part of the Carlson brothers’ group.

During his closing argument, Anderson said the stabbings were “absolutely senseless and horrific acts of violence.”

“All Nicolae Miu had to do was walk away,” he said. “All he had to do was walk away.”

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