DETROIT LAKES, Minn. – Former Minnesota State Senator Nicole Mitchell was sentenced to 180 days in jail after she was found guilty of breaking into her stepmother’s home last year in Detroit Lakes.
Prosecutors asked the judge for Mitchell to serve 21 months in prison for first-degree felony burglary.
Mitchell will also have to serve five years supervised probation.
Despite the jail term, the judge will allow her to be eligible for a work release program when she reports to the Ramsey County Jail on October 1st.
Based on Minnesota sentencing guidelines, the mandatory minimum sentence Mitchell was facing was at least six months, to be served behind bars or in a workhouse.
During the victim impact portion of the sentencing hearing, Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald read a written statement from Mitchell’s stepmother, Carol.
“The fear that Nicole created when she broke into my house has not left me,” Carol Mitchell wrote. “I am in fear for my life.”
While speaking before the court, McDonald said Mitchell hasn’t shown any signs of remorse and hasn’t apologized.
“This will be a classic story of how she got caught and not sorry for what she did,” McDonald told the judge.
Saying they were not asking for preferential treatment, Mitchell’s defense had requested that her two felony convictions be reduced to misdemeanors, and to suspend any jail time while sentencing guidelines were challenged.
That request was denied.
Her defense told the judge Mitchell is “a very good person” who made “an enormously stupid mistake” adding she is not “irredeemable.”
Mitchell also addressed the court before sentencing, saying she was “very sorry” by making “horrible decisions” and would abide by the judge’s decision.
“I broke into her [my stepmother’s] home,” Mitchell said. “I was worried about my own feelings…I did something ridiculous, illegal and selfish.”
“All I can say is I hope she finds it in her heart to forgive me some day. I probably don’t deserve it.”
