Minnesota former state senator sentenced to 6 months for breaking into estranged stepmother's house

A former Minnesota state senator who was convicted of burglary for breaking into her estranged stepmother’s house was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail but will be allowed to serve her time on work release. Democrat Nicole Mitchell, 51, of Woodbury, faced a minimum sentence of six months on the felony burglary count because her stepmother was at home in the northwestern Minnesota city of Detroit Lakes when she broke in last year. Becker County District Judge Michael Fritz agreed to let Mitchell serve her 180-day sentence on work release in Ramsey County, where she lives.