State, defense ask to push back next hearing in killing of Anita Knutson

MINOT, N.D. (KMOT) – The next hearing in the case against the person charged in the 2007 killing of college student Anita Knutson may be pushed back to the summer.

Nichole Rice is scheduled to appear for a pretrial conference March 1, but the state and defense filed a joint agreement this week, asking for it to be continued until June, the earliest.

The agreement cites “ongoing discovery and investigation in this matter” as the reason for the request.

Prosecutors charged the 35-year-old Rice with AA-felony murder following her arrest in March. Knutson, who was roommates with Rice at the time of her death, was found fatally stabbed in her off-campus apartment in June 2007.

The courts usually schedule trial dates and determine the size of the jury pool at a pretrial conference.

As of Friday afternoon, Judge Richard Hagar had yet to file a ruling on the request.