A jury of nine men and three women on Friday, July 18, convicted Democratic Sen. Nicole Mitchell of felony burglary and possession of burglary tools, concluding a case that has roiled the closely divided Minnesota Senate for over a year.
The jury deliberated for just over three hours Friday and asked no questions of the judge.
Mitchell faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the burglary charge. She faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison for the burglary tools conviction.
The verdict will almost certainly change the makeup of the state Senate, where Democrats currently hold a 34-33 majority. If Mitchell resigns, she’ll be replaced in a special election in what has been a solidly blue district in the past decade. If not, the Senate can expel her with a two-thirds vote, but they are not scheduled to come into session until next year. Only Gov. Tim Walz can call a special session.
Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, called on Mitchell to resign, for the first time, once the verdict was reached Friday: “Sen. Mitchell has told colleagues that she intended to resign if found guilty of this crime, and I expect her to follow through on that pledge. Our caucus remains focused on the issues that matter to Minnesotan families and communities.”
Carol Mitchell, whose house Nicole Mitchell entered without permission and is the stepmother of the accused, was in the courtroom Friday to witness the verdict, her first presence since she testified Tuesday. She hugged her son after the verdict was read.
Throughout the five-day trial, the state asserted that Mitchell, a first term senator, was intent on stealing her late father’s possessions from her stepmother when she broke into the home in April 2024. Prosecutors’ main evidence was that she told police officers as much during her arrest.
The senator said on the witness stand that she drove the 220 miles from her home in Woodbury to her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home to conduct a welfare check. Mitchell testified in her own defense Thursday, saying she has witnessed her stepmother’s mental decline because of Alzheimer’s disease, and that she she was concerned that Carol Mitchell wasn’t receiving the attention and care she needed.
Mitchell said she lied to police about her intentions — and made up wanting to steal her father’s possessions — to allay her stepmother’s paranoia.
“The defense has repeatedly classified this as a welfare check. You’ve seen all the evidence, the time of night, the outfit, the tools. What does your reason and common sense tell you?” Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald asked the jury in his closing statement.
Mitchell’s explanation of lying to police to refrain from exacerbating Carol’s paranoia defied common sense, McDonald said.
Mitchell has admitted she entered the home without permission her defense said she would have pleaded guilty to a trespassing charge. But she has unequivocally denied stealing anything from the home, and multiple police officers testified that they didn’t find anything in Mitchell’s possession that was stolen property.
Under Minnesota law, a person doesn’t need to steal anything to be convicted of burglary, however. The law requires that a person enter a dwelling without permission with the intent to commit a crime of theft.
McDonald argued that Nicole Mitchell would have stolen her father’s flannel shirt and other possessions, but she was accosted by police.
“Of course she didn’t have anything on her. She got interrupted,” McDonald told the jury.
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