Sen. Nicole Mitchell takes the stand in burglary trial, testifies she was ‘worried’ for stepmother

DETROIT LAKES, MINN. — Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell took the witness stand in her burglary trial Thursday, maintaining that years of turbulent family history and concern for her stepmother culminated in her break-in of the woman’s Detroit Lakes home in the middle of the night.

In nearly five hours on the witness stand, Mitchell admitted she lied to police. She said that she wasn’t at the home to retrieve belongings of her late father, despite telling officers that four times during her arrest. Instead, she told the court, she was at the home to check on her stepmother.

“I know it might be hard to believe because when it comes to family and protecting them, sometimes I have to make a choice I wouldn’t otherwise,” Mitchell said. “I am a person who acts with integrity. I am a person whose word means something.”

On cross-examination, Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald tried to instill doubt in her testimony for jurors, saying Mitchell was alone with police for almost 40 minutes and never expressed concern for Carol Mitchell, 75, who has Alzheimer’s disease.

Nicole Mitchell said that if she had told police the truth — that she had searched her stepmother’s old computer days earlier to find medical records that showed her declining health — the woman would have thought she was trying to get her into a nursing home.

She said her stepmother “would’ve freaked out, and it would’ve made it worse.”

Mitchell acknowledged that she did not have permission to access the medical records.

“I regret what happened,” she said. “I don’t regret that I was worried.”

The trial has focused at times more on Carol Mitchell’s struggles with Alzheimer’s disease than details of the night of the break-in.

Nicole Mitchell is charged with first-degree burglary and felony possession of burglary tools. She has pleaded not guilty, but in testimony she admitted to bringing a crowbar device that she used to break in through a basement egress window.

On Tuesday, Carol Mitchell had given shaky testimony, unable to recall names and dates, and didn’t recognize the crowbar found in the window that morning.

McDonald said the lawmaker is on trial, not her stepmother. He said no amount of grief or frustration justified breaking into the home where Mitchell’s father, Roderick Mitchell, had lived.

After he died in March 2023, Carol Mitchell’s health declined. On the one-year anniversary of his death, his interment was to have taken place, but Nicole Mitchell could not attend because she said it was bill deadline week at the Legislature.

That led to a fight with her stepmother, a dispute that played out in a three-day text message exchange a month before the April 2024 break-in. Their texts revealed a fraught history.

Carol Mitchell told her step-daughter in a text: “I am used to your disdain of me.” Nicole Mitchell responded that, since her childhood, Carol Mitchell had “always treated me like an annoyance.”

Nicole Mitchell read the texts, at times crying and her face growing flush. She testified that she was her father’s only child, that her sons were his only grandchildren, and yet they couldn’t attend his interment.

That is what drove her to travel 220 miles from her home in Woodbury to Detroit Lakes, she said. She arranged for her stepfather to watch her children while she was away, she said, which ended up being longer than expected when she was arrested and jailed.

Mitchell at times contradicted herself, saying she had only a brief time to check on her stepmother before she woke up that morning.

But McDonald said Mitchell had time to check the cat litter box and chest freezer, as she said food had likely gone bad. She told police when she was arrested that she hadn’t done anything, “I had literally just gotten to the house.”

But in testimony, she said that if she had wanted to take anything of her father’s in the basement, like his flannel shirt and photos, she could have and left without waking her stepmother.

Instead, she said, she went into her bedroom in hopes of finding her stepmother’s cellphone.

Mitchell said she wanted to make sure Carol Mitchell hadn’t deleted any texts or contacts or turned off her GPS tracking.

A note found in her backpack that night contained a checklist. Written on the back of an envelope, it said in part, “do not disturb,” “delete texts,” “contacts,” “ringer off,” “flashlight” and “add tracking gmail.”

Prosecutors accuse the senator of wanting to delete texts and set up GPS to track her stepmother, which Mitchell denied. Police lost the note so it is not in evidence.

She said the flashlight, which was covered with a black sock, was her son’s, who is afraid of the dark. She said the sock was on it before the break-in.

Mitchell said she wore all black and parked a few blocks from the home so neighbors wouldn’t see her and later tell Carol Mitchell.

She said she thought she could do the welfare check and leave without incident. Even as she was arrested, she said, she thought the charges could be dropped and the incident would remain a family matter.

Mitchell appeared nervous when she took the witness stand. The courtroom gallery was silent, except when a friend of Carol Mitchell’s, who was sitting in the front row and didn’t wish to be named, scoffed at something Nicole Mitchell said.

“She’s a really good actress,” said Gerry Schram, 78, a former Becker County commissioner who has been observing the entire trial.

The defense is expected to call two or three more witnesses Friday before closing arguments are presented and jury deliberations begin.

A conviction of Mitchell could tip the balance of power in the Senate, which Democrats control by a single vote.