Law&Crime Sidebar - Courtroom Erupts After Shocking Verdict in Teen’s Murder Case

Episode Date: April 5, 2025

Nearly two decades after 18-year-old Anita Knutson was found dead in her North Dakota apartment, her roommate went to trial on a murder charge. Prosecutors accused Nichole Rice of stabbing Knutson and leaving her body facedown on her bed back in 2007. A true crime television series helped revive interest in the case and bolster the police investigation. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber has details on the shocking verdict at the end of a week-long trial.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Ekster's Spring Sale is offering Up to 30% off from April 1, 2025 → May 19, 2025 Use discount code 'SIDEBAR' at checkout to get an additional 10% off on top: https://partner.ekster.com/sidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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We, the jury duly and paled and sworn find the defendant Nicole Aaron Rice not guilty of It was an unprecedented courtroom display. It was an unprecedented courtroom display in North Dakota after a woman is cleared of murder accusations that have dogged her for years. We're going to take a look at what police say happened to Anita Knudsen back in 2007,

how authorities came to settle on her roommate Nicole Rice as their prime suspect, and the impact a cold case television show had on this investigation. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. On June 4th, 2007, Anita Canutson was found stabbed to death in the bedroom of the apartment she shared with Nicole Rice. She had been attending Minot State University after graduating from high school in Velvet, North Dakota.

And despite the girls knowing one another in high school, their relationship by all accounts as roommates turned out to be quite acrimonious. Family members of Anita said that Rice's behavior was so erratic and unpredictable that Anita asked her father to install a lock on her bedroom door, giving her somewhere to escape from Rice. But then on the other side, you got former friends of Rice who have said it was actually Anita. It was Anita who was mean-spirited and vindictive, even allegedly unplugging Rice's fish tank, killing her fish. A lot of back and forth here.

Now, in a sad turn of events, it was actually Anita's father, who was the one who discovered her body, his own daughter, after no one had heard from her for several days. He wasn't able to get Anita to answer the door and it was locked, so he requested the property manager, let him inside. And that's when a maintenance man, Marty Anil, approached, pointed at it. out that the window screen for Anita's bedroom window was sitting off to the side with a slash in it. And when Gordon Knutson, the father here, looked through the window, he spotted his adopted daughter face down on the bed covered in a bloody robe. Officers determined that Anita was cold to the touch, had likely been dead for some time. And when they moved her body to the floor, they reported that a bloody knife tumbled out of the bedding. Now, a forensic pathologist determined that

Anita bled out after being stabbed twice in the chest. And despite Minot police initially theorizing that an intruder had murdered Anita, no arrests were made. Over the years, various offers of rewards were made for someone to come forward with information, but this case went cold. In 2018, the Minot Police Department brought in Detective McCauley Talbot to re-examine the evidence. Fresh eyes, speak with people about the murder that happened more than 10 years before. And there were several people being eyed as potential suspects. The maintenance man at the apartment complex I mentioned before, a man who apparently wanted to date Anita, but she wasn't interested, and another male friend of Anita's. Now, Rice, who was then known as Nicole Thomas, was also kind of in the mix as a possibility.

But then you fast forward to 2021. And my not police partnered with cold justice. You might know this TV series. It's one that has outside investigators look into cold cases across the country. So using all their resources and techniques, detectives were finally able to narrow their investigation down to one suspect, Nicole Rice. They cited her inconsistent statements after Anita was found dead, as well as her apparent lack of reaction when she found out her roommate had been violently killed. And they also cited an alleged confession that Rice made to her ex-love interest. In March of 2022, my not police officially arrested Rice. She posted a $120,000 cash bond, and it would be several more years before this case would even go before a jury. There were various hearings, continuances.

Plus, it was revealed that there was a serious prejudice against Rice and the Ward County jury pool. After all, this case had been fodder for the rumor mill in the area for more than a decade. And, of course, he got the Cold Justice episode that had aired by that point. So a lot of emotions, a lot of opinions were running high. So a change of venue motion was granted, meaning everything was moved. to Grand Forks County with the trial scheduled for January of this year. But then, just weeks before that trial was supposed to start, Rice's lead attorney apparently resigned. So her new lead counsel, Richard San, asked for more time to find more evidence that supported

Rice's plea of not guilty. And so that finally brought us to March 18th, 2025, 18 years after Anita was so viciously killed, this is when Rice's trial finally got underway. A little side note here, but I think it's pretty obvious from our content, the need for personal safety, right? And that is especially true when it comes to one of your most valuable possessions, your wallet, your cards, your cash, whatever it may be. Crimes up, you've got to protect yourself in 2025. And that is why we have partnered with extra wallet. This is awesome. It is a smart wallet designed for speed, security, and never losing your stuff again.

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or scanning the QR code on screen. So we have prosecutor Tiffany Sorgon. She gave a rather short opening statement. It was only a few minutes long. And she hit some of the major highlights in their case against Nicole Rice. 18 years ago, 18-year-old Anita Knudson was stabbed to death. And why not North Dakota? Anita had dreams of becoming a teacher. She was a college student at MSU. and when she was a student at MSU her mate was Nicole Thomas Rice known as Nicole Thomas at that time

the state intends to show you evidence there is bad blood between these two girls and their living situation was highly toxic state intends to show you evidence that on the early morning hours of June 3rd, 2007 Nicole Thomas Rice stabbed Anita Knutzen

twice in the chest killing her. You're going to hear from a number of witnesses who established this timeline I did a trial back in September. It was another murder trial. And my trial partner made a statement during closing that's echoed with me for a while.

Where he said, crime loves silence. Now, in that particular case, we had a defendant who had killed someone who could have blown the lid off of a pretty big drug operation. But that phrase stuck with me. Crime loves silence. As you have heard, this has been a cold case. His Rice was not charged with this crime until 2022, 15 years after it happened. It's a bit of the tortoise in the hair, slow and steady. Law enforcement took the time to make

sure we're the right person. There were some new developments that occurred over the years. You're going to hear testimony with regards to that. But as Mr. Nelson also told you during Fardier, there's some information that was looked back on in a different light. Because as we all know, sometimes when you hear something in the instant, it means something a little bit more significant once you look back on it. Hmm. I think that's what they meant then. Or, oh, that really is why that was important.

You're going to hear whispers from the past across the void of time that led to these charges. silent no more and we are concluded with this case we are confident that you are going to find Nicole Thomas Rice guilty of the murder of Anita Knutson thank you but then you had the other side you had defense attorney Richard San provided an opening statement that was lengthier than the prosecutions because he called out the my not police department for their investigation or maybe i should say in his opinion lack thereof now what happened to anita is terrible it's awful it's every family's nightmare it's every parent's nightmare it's every town's nightmare and anita died in 2007 we're sitting here in 2025 now we talked in jury selection

about what changed between now and then And I'm going to show you what changed. I'm going to tell you what changed. The witnesses are going to show you what changed. It was pressure from a TV show, a nationally syndicated program that came in, worked with the Minot Police Department, didn't dig up anything of substance, but put an incredible amount of pressure on the state's attorney's office, the police department, to bring charges in this case.

Now, you're going to hear from the original officers. I anticipate you'll hear from them. They're on the state's witness list. Those are good officers. They worked this case really hard. And they followed up with a lot of people. And they didn't charge Nicole. They didn't charge Nicole because she didn't do it.

Nicole got charged after a national media. circus descended on my nut. You're going to hear evidence, just like the state said. You can hear evidence that they reached out to the FBI to find out who did this. They didn't say Nicole. And I'll tell you who they said. They said it pointed to a man named Devin Hall. And I'm going to come back to that.

Every time the police called Nicole, she showed up. She talked to him. She said, how can I help? Not everybody did that. Now this Devon Hall, he was a 17-year-old kid from the Fort Peck Reservation out in Montana. The evidence is going to show you he traveled to Minot. That's where the murder happened. The evidence is going to show you he admitted to possession of the murder weapon.

which was a locking knife, like a buck knife, that an Indian had on one side. You're going to hear about someone else, the prom date of Ms. Canootson. This prom date ended up moving into the same apartment as Ms. Canootson, same apartment building, went on to continue to be a sleuth throughout Ms. Knutson's after her murder

and has been sitting in many of these court hearings as we go. He was a prime suspect. The cops describe him as obsessed with Anita. You're going to hear that Nicole had an alibi. Well, this went on. She wasn't there. You're going to hear she did not do this. This is a media sensationalized case.

And that's the person they want. They want the roommate, the college roommate. That sells. What doesn't sell is somebody who's dead? Or an indigent person that lives out in the middle of nowhere in Montana. Nicole sells. And that's what's going on here. And I'm sorry that I get impassioned. But I'm sure you understand the seriousness of this. The state's going to talk to you about a toxic roommate relationship. And I know we discussed this on injury instructions. Siblings, roommates,

they fight. There's issues about an unplugged fish tank. about an alarm clock that wouldn't stop going off. The evidence is to show you people like Nicole don't kill their roommates over that kind of stuff. They don't put knives through their sternums. The evidence is going to show you Nicole Rice didn't do this. This entire case toward Nicole has been an abortion of justice and it can stop now.

And Anita deserves justice. But justice is out there. It's not here. This is a show. Now, one of the early witnesses called by the prosecution was Dale Plessis. This is interim chief of the Minot Police Department. And he explained that for many years, the department had been stretched very thin and said that they welcomed the help from producers and investigators with cold justice. Has manpower been, unfortunately, a persistent issue with the Minor Police Department?

Yes, as with all law enforcement agents, but definitely, Monopedia has been down between 10 and 15. Even more than that, since around that time. So does that cover patrol officers, detectives, the whole kitten caboodle? Yeah, it does. I mean, it's across the board. Now, over those 15 years between 2007 and 2020, how has crime changed in the city of whatnot? There was a couple of things that really impacted the crime in Minot, the flood being one of them, and the oil boom in Western North Dakota being another.

And so crime has increased. We're seeing a lot more violent crime than we ever have prior to that. So as a result of that, our detectives and other law enforcement officers in the Minot police community stretched a little thinner? I would say yes. Were you involved in the decision to reach out to potentially podcasters or syndicated television shows, that sort of thing? We never reached out to them. They reached out to us. That's what I meant.

So they reached out to the Minor Police Department, and you had to make a decision on whether or not you were going to cooperate. Is that accurate? Correct. Okay. And what was that decision? Well, Cold Justice reached out to us and indicated that they had some. some things that they could provide us that were attractive to us. Logistics was a major one, DNA expert, forensic experts, and cold case investigator assistance.

So we reviewed all that, made a decision that with their logistics, we would be able to move forward with this investigation a lot smoother than on our own. So was that due to those logistical support that the decision was made to utilize them? That was the major component in his logistics. Did their help make it easier for the minor police department to do the work necessary for this case? It allowed us to move a lot quicker, so yes. Then you had former police sergeant David Goodman testified that Rice was not home when Anita was discovered. And after calling her employer a couple different times to get her to come back to the apartment, he took her inside to ask if anything was missing or looked out of place.

And he claimed Nicole Rice was much more worried about a missing iPod than she was that someone had seemingly entered her apartment and stabbed her roommate to death. During that entire investigation, did you ever determine that the defendant was not a suspect? No. And why is that? I was suspicious of her from the very beginning, just because of her demeanor when she went into the apartment. Some of the, her information she was giving was, she was contradicting herself. And I just, I just wasn't buying what she was telling us. Some of it, she, one of my first, My first interviews with her, we discussed ahead of time, don't tell me any lies, don't be untruthful about anything, because if it's illegal, I don't care about that.

I'm looking at the big picture here, and in that interview, she did lie. What was the lie? She lied about what she did on that Saturday night, where she was at, and what she did. In your experience, your long experience as a detective, is that significant? I believe it is, yes. Why is that significant? Because it just, in my mind, shows that she's hiding something. And then the prosecution called McCauley Talbot to the stand.

Now, this is the detective I mentioned before, who was given this monumental task of combing through the files from 2007, looking at it with a pair of fresh eyes. We're talking, looking at documents, video files, audio files, interviews, reports, you name it. and trying to make sense of it all. So she partnered up with the team from Cold Justice. And during cross-examination by Rice's defense counsel, they questioned Talbot about who the team wanted to talk to and whether that included some of the alternate suspects

police had previously identified. Remember the theme here? Sloppy investigation. Why did you focus on Rice? Was there anybody else? And this is when things, at times, got a little testy. Cold Justice was in town. Did you do interviews alongside of Cold Justice?

employees or representatives of cold justice one would accompany me yes so like a producer of cold justice or one of the faces of cold justice a TV person yes TV person was sitting in on interviews you were doing during your investigation they were casual interviews that you call Devon Hall in their review as far as give him a call go talk to see what he knows re-interview They had a list of people they wanted us to talk to, which we talked to. The devil wasn't one of them. No.

And when you made calls, these people were sitting with you at points. Objection asked and answered. I'll withdraw it. How long were they in town for? How long was cold justice in town with you guys? I think seven to ten days. I don't exactly remember. Did you have contact with them outside of the time they were in town?

We might have spoke on the phone. times, but I don't recall how many. They came into town. They worked. They reviewed the file. They worked with you guys to get justice and then they were gone. Yes. Except for the documentary they released, right? They did that, right? Correct. Okay. No further questions. Thank you, so by that line of questioning, the defense seemed to be implying that the TV show personnel, they were just there to get in, get as much good footage as possible, decide on a likely suspect, get out to move on to the next case. So could they have really done a good investigation in just a few days? The defense team has said multiple times, both before trial and during it,

that Minot Police felt pressure to pin the charges on someone, thanks to all the publicity generated by cold justice. So then you move on to people who knew Nicole Rice, her co-workers. So Rice had two jobs, one at a call center and another at a mall dress shop. Her then supervisor at the call center came on the stamp. testified about whether Rice talked about the situation with her roommate at work. And what Rice's demeanor was like on the day Anita was found dead. What sort of things did the defendant say about her and her roommate? She had just talked about her situation at their apartment.

What did she say about the situation? Just that they weren't getting along. She was some strange things like she was locked out of the wall. Wi-Fi. And I remember her telling me that she was locked out of a microwave or something, things that just seemed strange at the time, but a little bit ridiculous, you know. How did she see when she talked about these? She was kind of stuck in a bad spot. She made it seem like. She was up at my desk, and I just remember her talking to me that it always ended in, what am I supposed to do,

or how do I, what do I do, what am I supposed to do, type of things. Every time she would talk about their living situation, she was stuck in this, she was very worried about the lease. What do you mean she was worried about the lease? Well, because I would tell her that just move out, and she'd say she couldn't because she was in a lease. She was just very worried about the lease that they had at the time that she couldn't get out of this situation.

Were you working there on June 4th of 2007? Yes, I was. Okay. Was Nicole working there that day? Yes. Do you remember how she was acting that day? Was this the day that the police called me and stuff? Is that I was trying about?

Yes. I mean, it's not like the fresh of my memory, but I remember she seemed a bit like hurried that day, you know, a little bit sped up and going about her thing, not as social as usual. She was kind of quick to get to her desk and things. Would that have been different than the way she would act on other days? Possibly.

yeah do you recall when the dispatch called about getting were you there for a phone about for a phone call from dispatch yes they called what did they call about they called me and said that Nicole needed to go to her apartment did they give you any information beyond that no they did not did you relay that information to Nicole? Yes, I did. What did you say in response? I went to her and I said the police called you have to go to your apartment and she just kind of, I don't even think she looked at me from what I remember. She just said, no, my roommate's a crackhead. I'm not dealing with it and this and that. And I was kind of just like, okay. So I went back to the phone and I relayed that to

the police on the phone and they said, well, she either comes here now or we're going to to come there and take her here. Did you relay that information to the defendant? Yes, I did. And what was her response to that? I believe she up and left. Well, then you have one of Rice's former co-workers, Donna, take the stand as well. Now look, I'll just call it out right now.

Her appearance on the stand was a little different. Donna, now I believe 78 years old, was wearing a visor and sunglasses due to a medical condition that makes her eye sensitive to light. But she said that she knew from her first interaction with Nicole Rice, that she didn't get along with Anita. You remember the very first day you met her? Yeah, I remember the first things that she said to me, yes. Okay.

What were the first things that she said to you? What do you think about a roommate that sets their alarm, locks the door and leaves, and you can't get in to turn the alarm off? How does she see when she said that to you? She was angry. She was angry when she sat down complaining about it. Okay. the only time that the defendant was angry about her roommate no she she was

angry with her I would say on a daily basis something was going on they fought a lot okay and how do you know that she told me she said when they got into fights that Anita would go in and lock her door or bedroom door okay and so that she wouldn't you know have it out with her she'd go into the bedroom door. So Nita would walk away from her. Yes, Anita would go into the bedroom and lock the door. How did the defendant seem to you

when she would convey these things to you about her? She was very angry. Can you recall another incident? Yes, she was very upset because... They had had an argument. Anita wanted her to get rid of the fish tank. The girl, there was a fish tank in the apartment? Yes.

Nicole had a fish tank. And because it made too much noise. And she didn't want to get rid of it. And then I know that on two more occasions, she brought it up in that Anita had turned the fish tank off while Nicole was gone. And when she came back, it had been turned off. So she was very upset, and they had it out then

because she didn't want those fish to get killed. And it happened again. The same thing happened as she said she turned it off again. The third time, she turned it off. The fish were dead. And how did Nicole react to her fish being dead? She was very angry, and it looked And in that anger, that time when she was upset, she said, it was as if, I want to put words in her mouth.

It was if that she had really, Anita had really crossed the line then. She had moved from being, this is my interpretation, now she moved from being the worst roommate in the world to being a really bad, evil person. That's how she acted. And to your knowledge, how long before Anita died did this incident occur with the fish tank being turned off in the fish dying? The week before. That happened before that weekend. Were you at work on June 4, 2007? I don't know. I don't know the date at all.

How did you come to find out that Anita had done? died. She came in, Nicole came in and said that her roommate had been murdered and that she thought, and that they thought it was her. How soon after Anita's death was that? I think it was the next, it was the next weekend because she had just gotten back that police took her and her parents to the scene of the crime. And when she came back, So it was right after that in answering your question. Okay. So she told you that they thought she did it then?

Yes. Okay. And she said. What'd she say? She just, she said, if I keep my mouth shut, I'll be okay. A man named William May was also called to the stand the following day to talk about his connection with the defendant. The two were together in the summer of 2008. This is the year after Anita was killed.

and he wouldn't go as far as to say that they were dating per se, but said, you know, they spent some time together. And he claimed she made a stunning admission to him one night at a house party when she was what he believed to be quite drunk. At this house party, do you recall people talking about Anita's death? Yeah, so I was, we were playing video games and we were sitting on the couch. Nicole and I were sitting on the couch and a couple buddies were playing video games and someone from the kitchen was talking about it.

And that's when it was stated, the comment. When what was stated? The comment was that from Nicole Rice, it was that she had did it, that she had killed Anita. Nicole said that. Yes. However, the thing about that is, May did admit that when he later tried to get Rice to repeat what she'd said, you know, repeat it when you're sober, she refused and adamantly denied the allegation. Now, another person to offer up an alleged so-called confession from Rice was her aunt, Brenda Glens.

Now, the two were on a long drive together from New Mexico, back to North Dakota, which is when Rice allegedly told Glens some disturbing details, including that Anita looked peaceful, laying on the bed. Do you recall what she told you? She told me that there was a cut screen and the person who ever did this cut the screen and was hiding in her bedroom waiting for Anita to come out of the shower to make the attack. Did she tell you anything else? She said that it was so horrible.

She said to just see Anita lying there. But she looked so peaceful, covered up. Did she say anything else? and said that there was a bowl of water in the bathroom sink that whoever did this wash themselves up and washed the knife up. I accidentally, I think I stepped over some of your words there. You said that Anita, she said that Anita looked peaceful lying there

in her robe? Yes. Did she say anything else to you? During that trip. She was very upset that her iPod was gone, that the person who ever did this stole her iPod, she said that Anita was raped and stabbed and there was no

but it appears to be no struggle. Now, to be clear about something, the medical examiner found no evidence of sexual assault here. But the defense used their opportunity to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses on multiple occasions, poking holes in theories, sowing some seeds of reasonable doubt. And when it came time for the defense to present its side,

they called just one witness, a retired FBI agent-turned private investigator named James Douglas Coons. And the defense had hired him to look at this case from top to bottom, to basically start over. And he pointed out several flaws or apparent flaws in the investigation. Now, there's been some testimony from Sergeant Ashum

about inconsistencies of Nicole's interviews. yes or that what are your thoughts about those you know I saw them too we also talked about how you know this happened in 2007 she's been interviewed multiple times I think at least four times over 17 18 year period now and the story has changed a little bit again I don't see anything that jumps out to me is like oh my God we got her you know it's it's small details it's like we went from the the house and velvet to the family function and then okay in this first version we left out the bar but why is that significant she still isn't back in my not where she would have had access

to anita we know that there was this drunken party and that Nicole has been reported as being belligerently drunk now was she the only one that was that drunk I don't know how drunk was everybody else? How drunk were the people that allegedly heard this confession? So the story was that, and this is according to May, she was being asked about the murder and hassled about it, and at some point she just said, I did it. And that was the end of it. And so it doesn't make sense for me. So was there no logical follow-up conversation to that? Was there you know I would think you would continue to get questions about really why did you do it and a lot of this and then I also look for where was this ever reported to law enforcement and I never found it anywhere in all that materials Based on everything that we went over Nicole and your training experience is an FBI agent

What's your expert opinion regarding the allegations about Nicole in this case? Although it's not impossible. I don't think it's likely that she's responsible so after a week of testimony, the prosecution and defense moved into closing arguments on March 25th. And law enforcement was adamant about what they held back in this case. The bowl of water in the bathroom. Anita's body and what she was wearing, her position on the bed, the cut in the screen. These are important holdbacks. And these are all pieces of information. The defendant possessed and conveyed to people

at times when she should not have had that information. And as you heard the defense's own experts say, the only logical conclusion that she was there. So again, these inconsistent statements to law enforcement and to others, And the confessions, I did it. I was arguing with her about an alarm clock. She was wearing a white bathrobe, and I stabbed her.

Ladies and gentlemen, taking the totality of all of this information, eliminating the other persons of interest through investigation, There is only one conclusion to be drawn. Most importantly, from the defendant's knowledge and her admissions to friends and what she told her Aunt Brenda, whose heart was breaking about this, it's only one conclusion to be drawn. And that is at an early morning hour, so June 3rd, 2007. Nicole Rice took this knife and plunged it into the chest of this girl and killed her. The state asks you to find her guilty. They're asking you to find this girl guilty on

20-year-old hearsay. It's bologna. Think about this for a second. She leaves her family house in the middle of the night, goes in, kills her roommate who's got a lock on her door. Like Dexter cleans the scene. No DNA. Scrub. Nicole lives in this apartment. There's no DNA. her DNA is not on the knife. Her DNA's not on Anita. And then she texts her after, long after. The state expects you to believe that she did that and came home and went on with her life.

You see her sitting here. That's not James Bond. This didn't happen. Then the state's got the goal to ask Agent Kuhn's why we didn't do more work investigating this case. We did a heck of a lot of work. And we have no obligation. We have no obligation to hire investigators and to hire experts and everything else to do an investigation that they didn't do. They admittedly didn't do.

They didn't review the files. It's Nicole's job. That's a terrifying thing if you're an American citizen. You've got to hire your own police because they're not doing it. She wasn't hiding from this. There were people that were. What you're seeing here is a totally unprepared police department and state's attorney's office. You're seeing baseless charges and they're going after an innocent woman because they're pressured.

you have no idea what these TV cameras do to these people. And I'm not blast in police. Police are good people. But what you're seeing in this case is garbage. It's absolute garbage. It's insanity. You heard it from Agent Coons. I can't state it enough.

They didn't read the file before they charged her. We read the file before they did. They keep telling you that Their big issue is this hunch on Nicole because of her behavior. And then you heard, and you'll see it in the transcripts. Top of the transcript, Nicole was crying at the scene when she got there. I can't make these police testify to what they said. I've shown them a lot.

But that doesn't sound like what they were saying. She's crying. She's not acting stoic. She's crying. They asked her, they brought her into the apartment. Is anything missing? Yeah, my iPod is. Now all of a sudden they're latching on to that.

Cops are asking you a question, what's missing? It looks like my iPod's missing. She should have just said nothing and wired up. Instead, she tried to help them out. That was a bad idea with these people. People like Nicole don't kill people over alarm clocks. We know that. Toxic roommate.

They're telling you, read the texts. look at the alarm clock the fish we all went to college I went to college everybody's been plenty of disputes with their siblings and roommates

we talked about this at opening and during jury selection people like Nicole don't kill people over that I've told you that before it's true this is a case based on hearsay and speculation from 20 years ago

I don't think there's anybody in here that doesn't want justice for anita. She deserves it. There's no doubt, but there isn't justice for Anita in here. Nicole didn't do this. And on jury selection, we talked about guilty, go free or innocent, go to prison. Nicole didn't do this. The killer's out there, and this needs to be solved, but it's not going to be solved in here today because the work wasn't done.

The work had to be done by Nicole. She had to hire ex-FBI agents, a team of attorneys. She had to do that. That's not her job. That's not your jobs. That's the police's job. It's their job to look into the file, to read the file. Not to have a, I can't link anything more to the fact that cold justice came into town and they charged this case

more than the fact that they said they didn't read the whole file. They didn't review the file. I'm showing them things I haven't seen before. I showed Detective Asham that train report. She was shot. Wolf Point to Minot. End of May through June 10th. No Devon Hall on there.

Our case is shot. All of a sudden, he slipped a guy at 20. So I'm telling you, they just went through all these slides, hundreds of elements that have to work perfectly for them, for this case to work for them. It's crazy. If one of those falls out of place, this case doesn't work. This is madness. It's a horror movie. I don't think after any of this is any option to come back with a not guilty verdict.

Nicole didn't do this. The jury got the case. at around 3 p.m. on March 25th, and the next morning, they announced that they reached a verdict. This is my understanding that you have reached a verdict, correct? Okay. Thank you. in District Court, County of Ward, North Central Judicial District. State of North Dakota Plaintiff versus Nicole Aaron Rice defendant. Criminal number 51, 2022, CR 00421, verdict form.

We, the jury duly, impaled and sworn, find the defendant Nicole Aaron Rice not guilty of the information dated at Grand Forks, North Dakota, this 26th, May of March, 2020. Is this the jury's verdict? Can you calm down a little bit, please? Is this the jury's verdict? Okay, the juror nodded, the jury leader nodded. Ms. Sorgan, do you wish the jury pulled? No, Your Honor.

Mr. Sand, do you wish to jury poll? No, sir. All right, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you very much for your service. We appreciate the time that you've allotted for this case. You are now excused. My admonition no longer applies to you. So you can talk about this case if you choose to do so. And you can also not talk about the case if you choose to do so. Please rise. Okay, got to say something about this. So we here at law and crime, we're pretty shocked by this courtroom reaction. Why? Because it's not so much that the defense team, the defendant, her family members and so on, had such a boisterous reaction.

That's understandable. This is actually one of the more vocal ones. expressive ones I've seen. But it was a bit unusual, at least from my perspective, for a judge to not immediately shut that kind of reaction down. I mean, you heard it a little bit on the end, but it was surprising because most judges, they give an admonition before a verdicts announced that anyone making so much as a peep could be removed from the courtroom, even held in content. And I'll tell you, in the days after the not guilty verdict, the San law firm released a statement, acknowledging what they seem to suggest was a breach of courtroom decorum. The statement read our team has been working tirelessly for three

years to prepare for this trial. During that time, we became extremely close to our client's family. What the courtroom cameras didn't see were our daily group prayers alongside our client's family, emotional conversations, and our team standing by as our client and her daughter said their goodbyes prior to the verdict being read. Justice would not have been served by convicting the wrong person. When the verdict was read, we reacted emotionally. We sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended, especially to Anita Kudsen's family. The loss of Anita is heartbreaking and we in no way intended disrespect. But here's the thing about it. While the not guilty verdict was a win for Rice, okay, put on a great defense, prosecution failed to meet

their burden, very clear. We respect the jury's decision. There's still no answer about what happened to Anita, right? No justice one way or another for her or her family. And the question becomes if Nicole Rice didn't kill Anita, who did? It's all we have for you. Right here on Sidebar, everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.