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Nichole Rice was acquitted on March 26, 2025, of Class AA felony murder in the 2007 stabbing death of her roommate, 18-year-old Anita Knutson, after a trial in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Jurors deliberated roughly 5 to 5.5 hours before finding Rice not guilty. She was discharged immediately, received no sentence and cannot be retried on the same charge. Knutson's murder remains unsolved.

The trial began March 18, 2025, after being moved from Minot because of heavy local publicity. It lasted about seven days and included more than 20 witnesses. Prosecutors presented a circumstantial case involving motive, opportunity, alibi inconsistencies and alleged admissions. The defense emphasized the total lack of physical evidence, alternative suspects and media influence. Rice was the only defendant charged.

Knutson was a Minot State University freshman studying elementary education who worked part-time at a hotel and a mall store. Family and friends described her as kind, friendly and reliable. Rice, then known as Nichole Thomas and about 19, worked at a call center and shared a small two-bedroom apartment with Knutson at 2420 4th Street Northwest, Apt. 5, in northwest Minot. The two knew each other before becoming roommates and initially got along, but friends reported repeated arguments over matters including alarm clocks and pet fish. One witness told police she overheard Rice say something like, "One way or another, I'm going to get you out of this house." About a month before the murder, Knutson's father installed a lock on her bedroom door because of the tension. Rice had an apartment key. Prosecutors claimed the roommate conflicts escalated into violence, while investigators found no evidence of robbery or sexual assault.

Knutson was killed on June 2 or 3, 2007, most likely overnight into the early hours of June 3. She was found face-down on a blood-soaked bed in her bedroom, wearing a pink bathrobe. She had been stabbed twice in the chest, with wounds piercing her lungs and heart and causing fatal blood loss. The autopsy found no defensive wounds or signs of sexual assault. An unread text arrived on her phone at about 4:55 a.m. on June 3. After Knutson missed work and stopped contacting her family, which was highly unusual, her father Gordon went to the apartment on June 4. He, the property manager and a maintenance worker unlocked the door after seeing her body through the window. Police arrived around 5:12 p.m.

The apartment door was locked. A window screen had been cut in a backwards "L" shape and left outside, but investigators later concluded the cut was staging after the fact and that entry occurred through the front door. A common novelty folding pocket knife, a Fury "Sitting Bull" style, was recovered near the bedroom window with dried blood. Knutson's laptop, cellphone, camera and purse containing cash were undisturbed.

Investigators examined several people of interest, including a maintenance worker and a Montana man linked to a similar knife. They collected DNA from roughly 50 to 60 people, but recovered only limited DNA from the knife and found no fingerprints on the windowsill. Two black hairs were found in Knutson's hand. No physical evidence linked Rice to the scene or weapon, and the case went cold for nearly 15 years. Rice told police she left Minot early on June 2 for her family's farm near Velva and stayed there until returning for work on June 4. Witnesses later placed her at the 41 Club in Ruso on the night of June 2 to 3, with some saying she mentioned returning to the apartment for clothes. Her accounts of the weekend timeline, activities and relationship with Knutson changed across multiple interviews, while family statements about her whereabouts also varied. She reportedly failed a polygraph.

From 2008 to 2009, an ex-boyfriend and a friend reported that Rice made drunken statements admitting she "did it" or stabbed Knutson, with one account linking the stabbing to an alarm-clock argument. Her aunt later testified that Rice discussed crime details that did not fully match official findings. Phone records showed unaccounted-for time gaps. The television series Cold Justice helped re-examine existing evidence. Rice was arrested in March 2022, charged with Class AA felony murder and released on bond.

The video runs about 51 minutes and consists of a police interview-room recording. It shows the interview itself without narration or a presenter.