A man from Minnesota charged with murder and other offenses over a deadly stabbing episode that left a high schooler dead and four others in their 20s seriously wounded at a popular tubing destination on a Wisconsin river has reportedly hired the lawyer who represented Kyle Rittenhouse and is standing by his self-defense claim.
At a brief virtual hearing on Friday, Nicolae Miu, 52, told the court that he retained Corey Chirafisi of Madison, Wisconsin, as his defense attorney, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
Miu is charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Isaac Schuman, as well as four additional counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
According to an affidavit, Miu said he, his wife and two friends arrived at Apple River to go tubing on the Saturday morning of July 30, and he later left their group twice with goggles and a snorkel to look for his friend’s missing phone, which was in a floater bag.
But Miu apparently startled a group of young people by grabbing onto a tube, and a crowd gathered around him shouting false accusations that he was a child molester who was "out looking for little girls," according to witness video cited in court documents.
Miu claimed that the group attacked him first in the water and that he saw they had knives on them.
Miu fled the scene and was apprehended about an hour and a half later at a different section of the river by an exit ramp for tubers. He remains jailed on $1 million cash bond.
Chirafisi won acquittals on first-degree intentional homicide and all other charges for Rittenhouse in November 2021.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Rittenhouse testified he acted in self-defense when he opened fired during riots that swelled in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2021, after being chased down and attacked by protesters.