Fatal shooting of Minnesota lawmaker causes Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s burglary trial to be delayed

The upcoming trial of state Sen. Nicole Mitchell has been delayed due to the recent slaying of Melissa Hortman, who was fatally shot along with her husband in their home Saturday morning.

Court administration sent an email Sunday afternoon saying jury selection for Mitchell’s trial would not begin Monday morning as planned. Instead, there will be a remote court hearing on Monday. In a phone interview, Kim Pleticha, the director of public affairs for the Minnesota Judicial Branch, confirmed the delay was a direct result of Hortman’s murder.

“They’ve already told jurors, ‘Do not show up for voir dire,’” Pleticha said, adding that a continuance is still up in the air.

Chief Judge Michael Fritz would have to grant a continuance before selecting a future trial date. Attorneys for Mitchell, who is accused of breaking into her stepmother’s home late one night in April 2024, declined to comment when reached on Sunday.

Earlier, Mitchell’s defense team said a plea deal was not an option because they needed a jury to hear and, they hope, sympathize with Mitchell’s story.

“Her story is going to have to resonate with human beings,” a defense team member said. “That, you know, family dynamics are complicated and that people do their best in imperfect situations.”

The defense strategy will center on grief and the complicated aftermath of a death in a family, with added layers of aging and dementia. Relatives will take the witness stand to testify for and against other family members.

Mitchell’s father died in March 2023. He was 72. His estate was left entirely to his wife, Carol Mitchell, now 75. A year later, the first-term legislator drove from Woodbury to Detroit Lakes in the middle of the night, when she is accused of breaking into the home.

“Carol, it’s Nicole. I was just trying to get a couple of my dad’s things because you wouldn’t talk to me anymore,” the senator said to her stepmother while being arrested in the basement, dressed in all black, according to charges.

Once a panel of Becker County residents are seated, they will decide whether Mitchell is guilty of first-degree burglary and felony possession of burglary tools.

The state Senate can vote to remove Mitchell from office if she’s convicted of one or both felony charges (legislators are not automatically expelled upon felony conviction). If they vote to remove Mitchell, the DFL will lose its one-vote majority control in the Senate, which is now split 34-33.

Party control would then be tied until Gov. Tim Walz called a special election to replace her.

The 2025 legislative session delayed Mitchell’s original trial date set for January.

“It’s been a long time coming,” defense attorney Dane DeKrey said, “but trials are scary work, and anyone who tells you differently doesn’t really take them seriously.”

Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald declined interviews and said in a statement that “I look forward to presenting this case to a Becker County jury.”

DeKrey said it’s unclear what Mitchell stole, if anything.

But she didn’t have to steal to face a first-degree burglary charge, which is defined as unlawfully entering with the intent to commit a crime. The charge is more severe because the dwelling was occupied by her stepmother, who called 911 at 4:45 a.m. to say an unknown man was in her bedroom and ran to the basement.

The charges say that Nicole Mitchell told officers she wanted her late father’s ashes.

But the defense wants to show that’s not the only reason Mitchell went there. They say she was also concerned about the health and welfare of her stepmother, who has been in her family for 45 years.

Days before the break-in, Carol Mitchell went to a doctor appointment in Fargo where she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The defense motioned to get a copy of this medical record to present as evidence, but the judge recently denied it.

Mitchell later took to Facebook to say she was conducting a welfare check on a family member who has declined “due to Alzheimer’s and associated paranoia.”

Carol Mitchell is expected to testify, but she has declined to be recorded on video or audio, which every alleged victim in Minnesota courtrooms has a right to object or consent to.

The judge is allowing cameras in the courtroom but the trial won’t be livestreamed. It’s expected to take a week, with no trial Thursday as courts are closed for the Juneteenth holiday.

Prosecutors list 13 witnesses, mostly law enforcement and family, they can call to the stand. The defense lists two of Mitchell’s aunts and two private investigators among its half-dozen witnesses.

Included in the 17 pieces of evidence the prosecution plans to present are a blue crowbar found in the basement window, a flashlight covered in a black sock to dim the light, the 911 audio and transcript, body-worn camera footage, and the obituary of Roderick Mitchell.

He joined his daughter in St. Paul when she was sworn into office in January 2023. He died two months later.

The Minnesota Star Tribune spoke with three longtime Twin Cities defense attorneys.

Paul Applebaum said that if Mitchell gets up on the stand to say, “I loved my dad, he’s my life,” that could persuade jurors who might understand with her wanting his ashes.

“I think everybody on the jury, or the vast majority, are going to think back to when they lost a loved one and think what would they do,” Applebaum said.

Tom Plunkett said Mitchell’s defense team has a tough job, even if they can convey a sympathetic story to the jury.

“You’re going to lose if the jury can’t understand that the person sitting next to you is a real human being,” and this is difficult because “the government has vilified them.”

Robert Paule said the case underscores the lengths people will go to in grief and loss.

“People act very bizarrely in those times. … And I guess that’s normal. People grieve in different ways, but you know, it’s just sad sometimes, the way families can tear themselves apart over stuff like this.”