March 26, 2025:
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota jury on Wednesday (March 26, 2025) found a woman not guilty of murder in the 2007 stabbing death of her roommate.
The jury in the Grand Forks trial deliberated for more than five hours before finding Nichole Rice not guilty in the death of Anita Knutson, the Minot Daily News reported. As the court clerk read the verdict aloud, Rice’s family and friends embraced, and Rice was in tears as the judge restored order to the courtroom.
Rice, now 37, had been charged with a felony murder in the death of Knutson, an 18-year-old student at Minot State University.
Knutson was found dead in the apartment she shared with Rice. Knutson’s body was face down in her bed with two stab wounds in the chest.
Investigators said Rice was a person of interest in connection with the murder, but was not arrested until March 2022 because there wasn’t enough evidence to justify an arrest.
March 18, 2022:
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota woman has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of her roommate more than a decade ago, with authorities citing shifting statements from the woman and her parents as they pursued a cold-case investigation. Thirty-four-year-old Nichole Erin Rice had a court appearance Thursday afternoon (March 17, 2022) in Ward County. Rice is charged in the stabbing death of 18-year-old Anita Knutson, whose body was found in their apartment on June 4, 2007. Minot Police Chief John Klug says Rice was always a person of interest, but until recently they did not have enough evidence to arrest her.
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