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Body camera footage presented at trial shows State Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, raise her hands as police discover her in the basement of her stepmother\u2019s Detroit Lakes home on April 22, 2024. (KSTP)<\/p>\nDay one in the burglary trial of state Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, featured dramatic police body cam video along with testimony from several law enforcement officers and Mitchell\u2019s stepmother.<\/p>\n
Opening statements were relatively brief Tuesday morning, but attorneys on both sides provided a clearer understanding of the cases they plan to present this week.<\/p>\n
The prosecution said this is a cut-and-dried case of burglary and that Nicole Mitchell went to her stepmother Carol Mitchell\u2019s house on April 22, 2024, with one purpose: \u201cTo steal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe admitted to entering through a back window,\u201d said Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald. \u201cShe admitted to wanting to take items from the home. She said this not once. Not twice. But multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prosecution presented evidence that Nicole Mitchell used a crowbar to break into her stepmother\u2019s house in Detroit Lakes.<\/p>\n
Nicole Mitchell has stated that this was all a misunderstanding and that she went to the home to retrieve her late father\u2019s belongings and check on her stepmother, who suffers from Alzheimer\u2019s. She told police that she\u2019s had \u201csleepless\u201d nights worrying about mementoes she wants that belonged to her late father and about her stepmother\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cLadies and gentlemen, when the judge instructs you on the law at the end of this case, you\u2019ll learn that any \u2018why\u2019 won\u2019t amount to a legal excuse. That is because no amount of grief or frustration can justify a home burglary,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
Defense attorney Bruce Ringstrom Jr. emphasized that while Nicole Mitchell did enter the house last spring without permission, she did not intend to steal; rather, she was trying to check on her stepmom.<\/p>\n
Ringstrom claimed Carol Mitchell\u2019s health was rapidly declining and that his client actually made it a point to go to her house when it was dark, to park on a side street, to wear dark clothing and to be quiet \u2014 all for a greater good.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re checking on a paranoid loved one, hoping they don\u2019t notice, you take great pains to be unnoticed,\u201d Ringstrom said, adding, \u201cUnless the state\u2019s evidence can rule out that Nicole Mitchell entered (the house) just to check on Carol Mitchell, then the verdict must be not guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n
After opening statements, prosecutors began presenting body camera footage from the night of the alleged break-in, which shows the moments officers found Nicole Mitchell in her stepmother\u2019s basement.<\/p>\n
Body camera footage presented at trial shows Nicole Mitchell raising her hands as police discover her in the basement of her stepmother\u2019s Detroit Lakes home on April 22, 2024.<\/p>\n
Body camera footage presented at trial shows State Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, raise her hands as police discover her in the basement of her stepmother\u2019s Detroit Lakes home on April 22, 2024. (KSTP)<\/p>\n
Nicole Mitchell is seen dressed all in black with a flashlight in her waistband. As officers place her in handcuffs, she tries to explain to her stepmother why she\u2019s in the home.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarol? It\u2019s Nicole,\u201d Nicole Mitchell says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Nicole?\u201d her stepmother replies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to get a couple of my dad\u2019s things because you wouldn\u2019t talk to me anymore,\u201d Nicole Mitchell says.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe stole documents. I don\u2019t know. She\u2019s my stepdaughter,\u201d Carol Mitchell tells the officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t steal any documents!\u201d Nicole Mitchell pleads.<\/p>\n
After showing the body camera footage, the prosecution called Detroit Lakes Police Officer Joe Sternhagen to the stand to answer questions about the evidence processed at the scene.<\/p>\n
Carol Mitchell was brought forward to testify next. She declined to have her testimony broadcast on a news feed of the trial. A reporter from one of our affiliates says she appeared confused on the stand and couldn\u2019t remember some details.<\/p>\n
Nicole Mitchell is charged with first-degree burglary and possession of burglary or theft tools. It remains unclear whether she plans to testify in her defense.<\/p>\n
If she does, prosecutors will certainly ask her about a statement she made to police after she was read her Miranda rights. \u201cI know I did something bad,\u201d Mitchell said after her early morning arrest. <\/p>\n
The prosecution plans to make it a centerpiece of their case. \u201cI know I did something bad,\u201d McDonald said, quoting Mitchell. \u201cThose were some of the many words of Sen. Nicole Mitchell in the early morning hours of April 22, 2024, when detained by law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a 15-month road to get to the trial. It was delayed twice \u2014 once due to the assassination of House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and once due to the legislative session. Mitchell\u2019s attorneys have also tried, unsuccessfully, to get the case itself and one of the charges thrown out.<\/p>\n
The trial is expected to last around a week, with testimony resuming at 9 a.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Stay with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS for trial coverage on air and online. See extended clips from the trial on the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS YouTube page.<\/p>\n
CLICK HERE<\/a> for more coverage on the case.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0Bailey Hurley<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Becker County<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Burglary<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Detroit Lakes<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Jury Trial<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Nicole Mitchell<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Tom Hauser<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Day one in the burglary trial of state Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, featured dramatic police body cam video…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,12629,12630,12631,12632,12633,3,12634,12635,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-12906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-bailey-hurley","tag-becker-county","tag-burglary","tag-detroit-lakes","tag-jury-trial","tag-news","tag-nicole-mitchell","tag-tom-hauser","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}