KANDIYOHI COUNTY, Minn. — Editor’s Note: The above video first aired on 8/12/2024.

A former Kandiyohi County Deputy has pleaded guilty to driving under the influence when he crashed his squad car back in July. 

According to his plea deal, 39-year-old Christopher Flatten was sentenced to 90 days in jail, 90 days stay of execution of two years and he will pay a fine of $300.

According to the Kandiyohi Sheriff, Flatten resigned from his position as a deputy on Oct 7. 

Prosecutors had said law enforcement was dispatched to a rural area on County Road 4 just before 6:30 p.m. on July 18. A 911 caller told dispatchers that a squad SUV had rolled several times, was sitting in a field, and that the uniformed deputy inside was unresponsive. 

RELATED: Deputy charged with DWI after rolling squad while on duty

Two Minnesota State Troopers arrived on the scene and found the 2018 Explorer heavily damaged and resting on its side. They extricated the driver, soon identified as Deputy Flatten before he was airlifted for medical treatment. 

A witness told investigators that he was driving in a semi and headed eastbound on U.S. Highway 12 when he saw a squad vehicle turn onto the highway without stopping at a stop sign. The trucker followed the squad down Highway 12, noting that the vehicle was “all over the road,” at times being over the center line by as much as three-quarters of the Explorer and then swerving onto the grass of the shoulder. This reportedly continued until the squad turned southbound on Kandiyohi County Road 4. 

A second witness who was traveling towards County Road 4 told troopers he saw the squad leave the road and hit the ditch, rolling the vehicle five or six times. 

Based on their descriptions of what happened, one of the state troopers obtained a search warrant for a sample of Flatten’s blood. Investigators went to the medical facility where the deputy was being treated and told him that refusing to provide a blood or urine sample was a crime. According to the complaint, Flatten refused to provide a sample and would not provide a statement about what happened. While speaking with Flatten troopers noted that he smelled of alcohol, his eyes were bloodshot and glassy and his speech was slurred.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness and keep lungs healthy.

Lung cancer is the 3rd-most commonly diagnosed cancer and is the most fatal of all cancers.

Screening is completed via an annual low-radiation dose chest CT scan that looks for suspicious lung spots.

Bobby Anderson, a nurse practitioner with the Mayo Clinic, joined KARE 11 News at Noon to discuss the importance of lung cancer screening.

MANKATO, Minn. — Jurors returned to a Blue Earth County District courtroom Wednesday after four days off to hear closing arguments in the murder trial of Adam Fravel. 

KARE 11’s Lou Raguse has covered the case of Maddi Kingsbury’s disappearance and murder extensively and is in court for Wednesday’s closing arguments. After hearing the defense present its case in less than three hours Friday, the jury panel was given Monday and Tuesday off to take part in the election of 2024. 

The courtroom was packed as jurors were led into the courtroom to listen to prosecutors and Fravel’s defense teams make their final arguments. Maddi Kingsbury’s family and friends grouped on one side, while Fravel’s family and supporters sat directly behind him and the defense table. 

Lead prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz opened by thanking jurors and giving a detailed explanation on the concept of reasonable doubt, also touching on the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence, which the state’s case is largely built on. 

“Law does not prefer one form over another. Direct evidence is just as good as circumstantial,” Prokopowicz told the panel. “There is only one reasonable conclusion you can draw… that Adam Fravel is guilty of all crimes with which he is charged.”

Prokopowicz spent significant time drilling down on testimony from people about the troubled relationship between the defendant and Kingsbury. He referred to testimony about abusive language used by Fravel, multiple instances of marks being seen on Maddi’s neck and one witness who testified she was talking to Kingsbury on Facetime and allegedly saw the defendant backhand her across the face during an argument about the house being a mess. 

The prosecution then brought up Fravel’s reported obsession with the case of Gabby Petito, a young woman who was killed by her boyfriend during a cross-country camping trip. Prokopowica reminded jurors about testimony from members of Kingbury’s family about her telling them Fravel brought up the Petito case, then walked up behind her and wrapped his hands around her throat. 

Fravel reportedly said it was just a joke, but Maddi packed up and left the home for a number of days. 

“As I said earlier, from the outset of the relationship between Maddi Kingsbury and Adam Fravel, it was never about them, it wasn’t about the children. It was about him and what he wanted. Prokopowicz insisted. “His efforts to control the relationship. Physical violence. Emotional manipulation.”

The state then focused on Maddi’s growing relationship with a new partner, Spencer Sullivan, and Fravel’s loss of power as Maddi took steps to end their partnership. He was jealous, unemployed, would have to move back in with his parents and realized that life as he knew it was ending, Prokopowicz told the jury panel.  

“No longer would his degrading comments work. The slapping of her face, shoving into the counter, strangulation. No longer would he be able to play on her emotions and sense of guilt.” Prokopowicz stated. “The relationship was no longer about him and he was damned if he was going to let her do this to him, to take his kids and take his life from him. His anger swelled… with lingering and hovering. No other man was going to raise his kids. It’s rational and reasonable that Adam Fravel’s self-centeredness, possessiveness, jealousy, and anger caused him to strike out against the only person who was the cause of it all. Maddi Kingsbury. Who else had the motive? There was no one but the defendant Adam Fravel.”

Prokopowicz ended by laying out a collection of physical evidence that, while circumstantial, points to Fravel as Maddi’s killer, according to investigators. A towel found wrapped around Maddi’s head across her nose and mouth, identical to a towel captured in a picture of the couple’s bathroom; a sheet Kingsbury’s remains were found in that resembled one missing from an air mattress set up in their home; and surveillance cameras that were operational on March 24 but disconnected March 29 and found in the couple’s garage. 

The defense was poised to deliver its closing arguments following a break late Wednesday morning. 

Fravel is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two of second-degree murder in the death of Maddi Kingsbury, his former partner and mother of Fravel’s two children. Maddi was last seen the morning of March 31, 2023 when she and Fravel dropped their daughter and son off at daycare. She was reported missing later that day. After weeks of massive searches in southeastern Minnesota, Kingsbury’s remains were discovered on June 7 in a remote area near Mabel, not far from the home of Fravel’s parents.