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The jury trial for the woman accused in the 2007 death of Anita Knutson has been scheduled to begin next summer, according to court records.
Nichole Rice, 35, Minot, has been charged with Class AA felony murder in the cold case of her then roommate, with the jury trial now scheduled to begin on July 15, 2024, and run through Aug. 2, 2024.
At a pre-trial conference at the end of September, Rice's attorney Philip Becher had requested the court take into consideration her family's farming obligations during the spring planting and harvesting seasons. State prosecutors and Becher both said they expected the trial to take about three weeks, with one week likely to be devoted to the selection of jurors.
The parties have also filed a stipulation agreement and proposed order where they have agreed to an extension for the State's response to a motion to dismiss entered by the defense. The defense's motion to dismiss has introduced an allegation of their own into the proceedings, contending that false information regarding the results of two DNA tests was sworn into the record in support of the State's probable cause for charging Rice with Knutson's murder at her preliminary hearing in September 2022.
While the State would typically only have 14 days to respond to the motion, Deputy State's Attorney Tiffany Sorgen and Becher both agreed to an extension due to the "expansive and possibly dispositive nature of the motion" along with Sorgen's existing court schedules and obligations. If North Central District Court Judge Richard Hagar signs off on the proposed order, the State will have until Nov. 1 to respond to the motion.