Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s stepmother testifies that break-in left her feeling ‘extremely violated’

DETROIT LAKES, Minn. - Democratic state Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s stepmom took the witness stand Tuesday and said she felt “extremely violated” after she discovered her stepdaughter in her basement early one morning last spring.

But Carol Mitchell, 75, struggled to answer questions by prosecutors and defense attorneys because of her Alzheimer’s disease, forgetting key dates and family members’ names. Her testimony during the second day of Nicole Mitchell’s burglary trial hit at the central question in the case: Did the first-term DFL senator break into her stepmother’s home to commit a crime, or was she checking on a loved one struggling with cognitive decline?

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

The second day of trial began with opening statements and went deeper into the two sides’ version of events and whether Mitchell’s actions met the definition of a burglary. Mitchell, 50, 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, which Democrats control by a single vote.

Defense attorneys say concern over her stepmother’s condition drove Mitchell to travel from her home in Woodbury to Detroit Lakes in the middle of the night on April 22, 2024. They say she knew Carol Mitchell’s health was worsening, that she was giving away her late father’s possessions and she feared there would be no mementos left. Nicole Mitchell reached a breaking point after her dad’s ashes were buried without her there to say goodbye, they maintain.

Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald countered: “No amount of grief or frustration can justify a home burglary.”

McDonald said Nicole Mitchell was “caught red-handed,” wearing all black, including a black stocking cap. She had 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 stepmother, who stepped on her stepdaughter lying beside her bed when Carol Mitchell got up about 4 a.m. and called 911 to report that a man had broken into her house.

On the witness stand, Carol Mitchell couldn’t remember when her husband, Roderick Mitchell, 72, died. She also couldn’t remember the names of her grandsons, Nicole Mitchell’s children.

Carol Mitchell repeatedly answered many of McDonald’s questions with, “I honestly don’t remember.”

She took long pauses, shook her head and searched for answers before McDonald would move to the next question. Carol Mitchell 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.”

Carol Mitchell and Nicole Mitchell had stopped talking and hadn’t seen each other in several months. Ringstrom said 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.

Joseph Sternhagen, the Detroit Lakes police officer who helped arrest Nicole Mitchell, 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 footage telling Mitchell she was 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 the intent to commit a crime inside the building. He said the defense is not disputing that Mitchell entered without consent, but that she was there to check on her stepmother.

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

Prosecutors made clear that Nicole Mitchell never placed a welfare check. In one exchange heard on body-worn camera video, Nicole Mitchell tells an officer that Carol Mitchell has “severe Alzheimer’s and there’s just a couple things of my dad’s I wanted to come get.” Carol Mitchell then said, “She’s not trying to help. She’s trying to get money.”

When Roderick Mitchell died, he didn’t have a will. Carol Mitchell was awarded all his financial assets and possessions. Carol Mitchell accuses Nicole Mitchell and some of her relatives of stealing financial documents, which Nicole Mitchell denied to police.

“Carol, it’s Nicole,” she said while being placed under arrest. “I was just trying to get some of my dad’s things because you stopped talking to me.”

“Nicole?!” Carol Mitchell shouts back before telling officers that she is her stepdaughter; she later told them Nicole Mitchell is a state senator, “or was,” she said with a laugh, saying she wouldn’t be afterward.

But her testimony about the break-in and arrest was inconsistent with the body-worn camera. In her testimony, she said the suspect was pulled from the basement egress window and officers called to tell her it was Nicole Mitchell. The camera footage shows a family in dispute and dysfunction.

Asked on the witness stand by the prosecution if her late husband was proud of Nicole Mitchell being a state senator, Carol Mitchell said, “Oh, absolutely.”

“Were you?”

“Yes,” Mitchell said.

The judge is allowing cameras in the courtroom for the trial, but Carol Mitchell objected to being recorded on video and photos, which victims are allowed to do.