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. 

ST PAUL, Minn. — Voters in Minnesota overwhelmingly said yes to a constitutional amendment that renews the use of proceeds from the Minnesota Lottery for environmental projects and causes across the state. 

The Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund was up for renewal in the 2024 election. About 77.5% of constituents voted yes, renewing the source of funding until 2050 and additionally, increasing the dollars that can be spent annually from this fund, according to the Associated Press. 

With 99% of the vote reported, only 16.2% of voters said no to the amendment. 

Minnesota voters first approved the constitutional amendment in 1988, opting to dedicate a portion of lottery proceeds to the fund. Each year since the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources has worked to help disperse that funding for projects that reflect Minnesota’s love of the outdoors and preservation of the environment. 

Those projects have included research on drinking water, wastewater and air quality. They have also helped fund new parks, trails and campsites; supported loon and bison populations; and fostered outdoor activities. Lottery proceeds have provided more than $1 billion since 1988. 

MINNETONKA, Minn — The stakes were high in west metro suburbs going into this election. Voters in Senate District 45 had a special election to determine the balance of power in St. Paul. 

Voters in the district chose DFLer Ann Johnson Stewart with 52.43%% of the vote, over Republican Kathleen Fowke, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State.

This was the only Senate District with an election Tuesday. The other 66 districts won’t be in play until 2026, because senators currently serving were elected to four-year terms back in 2022. But DFL Sen. Kelly Morrison resigned her seat to run for Congress, prompting a special election to replace Morrison in SD45 the same day as the November 5 General Election.

Morrison’s departure left the chamber deadlocked at 33 Democrats and 33 Republicans. Now, when lawmakers come back for the 2025 Session, the DFL will have a one-seat advantage. 

Johnson Stewart is a civil engineer who served a two-year term in 2021-2022 Legislature. As a result of redistricting in 2022, she ended up in the same district as Morrison, who won the DFL endorsement in SD45. 

She told KARE 11 in an October interview she wants to solve the water supply and wastewater treatment issues in the district, which wraps around Lake Minnetonka.