Opening statements of trial offer starkly different version of Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell's actions

Kim Hyatt, Star Tribune on Jul 15, 2025

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DETROIT LAKES, Minn. — Prosecutors in the burglary trial of state Sen. Nicole Mitchell painted the portrait of a step-daughter dressed in all black who said she knew she had done “something bad” when she entered a basement window early one April morning.

But Mitchell’s attorneys countered that her actions were those of a grieving daughter who was frustrated over the ashes of her late father and concerned about the well-being of her stepmother, Carol Mitchell.

“A burglar runs,” Bruce Ringstrom Jr., one of Nicole Mitchell’s attorneys, said in opening statements Tuesday. “A concerned child stays.”

The second day of Nicole Mitchell’s trial kicked off with opening statements and went deeper on the two sides’ version of events during that day in April 2024 and whether her actions met the definition of a burglary. Nicole Mitchell, a 50-year-old first term DFL senator, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree burglary and felony possession of burglary tools for allegedly breaking into her stepmother’s home. If she’s convicted, it could tip the balance of power in the state Senate, where Democrats hold control by a single vote.

Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald said she was “caught red handed.” Nicole Mitchell was wearing all black, including a black stocking cap. She removed her shoes to be “stealthy,” McDonald said, and entered through a basement egress window.

“Despite her stealth,” McDonald said, she still woke up her 75-year-old stepmother, who stepped on her stepdaughter lying beside her bed when Carol Mitchell got up around 4 a.m. and called 911 to report that a man had broken into her house.

Carol Mitchell, who Nicole Mitchell has said is living with Alzheimer’s, took the witness stand Tuesday and struggled to answer questions in direct examination with McDonald. She couldn’t remember when her late husband, Roderick Mitchell, 72, died. She couldn’t remember her grandson’s names, Nicole Mitchell’s two sons. Carol Mitchell repeatedly said, “I honestly don’t remember” to many of McDonald’s questions.

She took long pauses, shook her head and searched for answers before McDonald would move onto the next question. Carol Mitchell said she felt “extremely violated” after the break-in and said it was a frightening experience that forced her to move into a high security building for people over the age of 55.

“I didn’t dare stay there,” she said. “And I’ve only now moved back into my home after putting in a security system.”

Defense attorneys say concern over her stepmother’s condition is why Nicole Mitchell drove from her home in Woodbury to Detroit Lakes in the middle of the night on April 22, 2024. They say Nicole Mitchell knew that Carol Mitchell’s health was worsening and that she was giving away her late father’s possessions and feared there would be no mementos left. Nicole Mitchell said she wanted photos and a flannel shirt.

The breaking point came when Carol Mitchell chose to bury her husband’s ashes last spring on a date that Nicole Mitchell and her sons could not attend, according to the defense. Nicole Mitchell knew the ashes were already gone by the time she decided to go there and get any remaining mementos.

Ringstrom said Nicole Mitchell was checking on an aging parent, for which there is no roadmap. Carol Mitchell and Nicole Mitchell had stopped talking, they hadn’t seen each other in several months. Ringstrom said that Nicole Mitchell knew her stepmother would be upset if she showed up because Carol Mitchell had become increasingly paranoid.

“When you’re checking on a paranoid loved one and hoping they don’t notice, you take great pains to be unnoticed,” Ringstrom said.

He said Nicole Mitchell had a key, but Carol Mitchell started barricading the door. Ringstrom said if his client had been charged with trespassing, she would’ve pleaded guilty.

“It doesn’t matter how they are dressed. It doesn’t matter what tools they have,” Ringstrom said.

McDonald, the prosecutor in the case, told jurors they will hear about Nicole Mitchell’s grief and frustration, but that “grief and frustration do not justify burglary.”

Joseph Sternhagen, the Detroit Lakes police officer who responded and arrested Nicole, took the witness stand Tuesday before Carol Mitchell. His body-worn camera showed him finding Nicole Mitchell in the basement bathroom with her hands in the air. Back at his squad car, he is heard on body-worn camera telling Nicole Mitchell that she is being charged with burglary.

“Even though I didn’t take anything?” she asks.

“You’re definitely dressed for it,” Sternhagen said.

Ringstrom told the jury that the burglary charge requires the state to prove that someone had intent to commit a crime inside the building. He said they are not disputing that she entered without consent, but that she was there to check on her stepmother.

Unless the state can rule out that Nicole Mitchell was only there to steal something and not check on Carol Mitchell, the verdict must be not guilty, Ringstrom said.

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