Update: 12:42 PM
Closing arguments are over and the jury is getting the case in State Senator Nicole Mitchell’s burglary trial.
The state senator is accused of breaking into her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home.
Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald began quoting Mitchell who said on body camera video saying “I know I did something bad.”
“Rather, the defendant knew she did something bad, but wants to lie about it,” McDonald argued.
McDonald brought up Mitchell is a politician and a military commander and called Mitchell planning to break into her stepmother’s home overnight with “a ninja suit” her mission.
Mitchell was seen on police bodycam video wearing all black, using a flashlight and she testified she broke into the home with a crowbar.
“The three things I asked you at the start of this case will lead you to the truth: trust your eyes and ears, do not get distracted, use your commonsense and good judgement,” McDonald said directly to the jury.
Defense Attorney Bruce Ringstrom, Junior brought up what Mitchell said on the stand that she told a white lie to her children last month.
“She did not want to terrify her children. Does that call her character into question? The thing she said to those kids was not true. She said it because if she had told them the truth, it would have caused a trauma that few children would ever experience,” Ringstrom said.
Ringstrom brought up Mitchell spending 30 years in the military and is a lawyer, mother and stepdaughter to a woman with Alzheimer’s.
“That she would throw away her entire life for some things she knew she was going to get anyway. If somebody believes she was there to steal, she never would have left the basement,” Ringsrom said.
DETROIT LAKES, Minn. – Day five of the Nicole Mitchell burglary trial has begun in Becker County Court.
The defense will possibly call up to three witnesses on Friday.
The State Senator took the stand in her own defense in her trial Thursday.
Mitchell testified she regretted what happened when she was confronted by police during an alleged break-in last year at her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home. She also argues she was there to check on her stepmother who has Alzheimer’s.
Prosecutors say Mitchell was there to steal her late father’s things.
Click here to watch the proceedings.
