Opening statements delivered in trial of Adam Fravel, man accused of killing Madeline Kingsbury

By Olivia Estright, Post Bulletin

Following eight days of jury selection, opening statements in Adam Fravel’s murder trial were delivered to the 17 jurors in Mankato on Thursday morning, Oct. 17.

Fravel, who wore a gray suit with a black collared shirt, is charged with first-degree murder while committing domestic abuse with a past pattern of domestic abuse, first-degree premeditated murder and two counts of second-degree murder in connection to the death of Madeline Kingsbury.

Phillip Prokopowicz, a special prosecutor with Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension who is handling the case, spoke to the jurors for more than 45 minutes, detailing the timeline of Fravel and Kingsbury’s seven-year relationship and what allegedly happened when she went missing.

“Madeline Kingsbury will not testify,” Prokopowicz said. “She’s not here.”

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Kingsbury, who had two children with Fravel, reportedly disappeared on March 31, 2023. An investigator found Kingsbury’s body along a remote road near Minnesota Highway 43 in Mabel around 1:30 p.m. on June 7, 2023. Fravel was arrested that evening.

Prokopowicz said through testimony from law enforcement, Kingsbury’s friends and her family, jurors will be able to see and understand her story.

According to Zachary Bauer, Fravel’s defense attorney, law enforcement and Kingsbury’s friends and family have automatically assumed Fravel is guilty from the start.

“This case is about tunnel vision, revisionist history and secret truths,” Bauer told the jury.

Bauer said law enforcement officers were looking at this case with “tunnel vision,” Kingsbury’s friends have relied on their own “revisionist history,” and claimed Kingsbury herself had “secret truths.”

“They were solely focused on one individual for 58 days,” Bauer said.

The first witness, Winona Police Officer Ethan Sense, was called to the stand around 11 a.m. Sense responded to Fravel and Kingsbury’s Winona residence on Kerry Drive around 8 p.m. on March 30, 2023. Sense told the court he searched the property for Kingsbury, noting the lights in the home were turned off and there was no sign of forced entry.

Prokopowicz played body-worn camera footage of Sense calling Fravel from his squad car that night. In the footage, Fravel told Sense over the phone that he had no idea where Kingsbury could be.

The state called Anita Sobotta to the stand when the afternoon session began. Sobotta is an investigator with the Winona Police Department, who interviewed Fravel on April 1 and 2, 2023.

The state played footage captured on her body-worn camera during the interview with Fravel from April 1, 2023.

Though it wasn’t clear in the video, Sobotta said, the left side of Fravel’s face was covered in scratches, near his nostril, Adam’s apple and eye.

An hourlong interview from April 2, 2023, conducted by Sobotta and another investigator, was shown to the jury Thursday afternoon. During the interview, Fravel admitted to telling Kingsbury she would end up like Gabby Petito.

“I hugged her,” Fravel told investigators during the interview as he sat in the Rushford Police Department. “It was so stupid. I was just trying to make a joke.”

The state aims to paint a picture of domestic violence

During the opening statement, Prokopowicz described Kingsbury’s life.

She earned her degree from Winona State University, where she met Fravel. She had a hybrid work schedule at Mayo Clinic and traveled to Rochester twice a week. She and Fravel had two children together. They lived together in a “cluttered” house in Winona.

After the birth of their first child, Prokopowicz claimed that “Madeline Kingsbury began to express frustrations in their relationship.” He told the jury they will hear testimony that shows their relationship was “more of a relationship of convenience” for Kingsbury.

Prokopowicz told the jury they’ll hear testimony from Kingsbury’s friends who claim they witnessed Fravel hitting her over Facetime and observed Kingsbury wearing clothes with unnecessary coverage in warmer months.

When Fravel and Kingsbury broke up in March 2023, Prokopowicz said, Kingsbury told others that Fravel was “creeping around.” The last known photograph of Kingsbury was when she and Fravel dropped their kids off at day care the morning she disappeared.

Prokopowicz told jurors they will hear testimony from the officer who found Kingsbury’s body.

“He heard flies,” Prokopowicz said. “He observed flies swarming the area.”

Prokopowicz said her body was found in a culvert. Autopsy reports showed that her body had “badly decomposed” and that she died as a result of asphyxiation by homicidal violence, he said.

Defense pleads jurors to ‘listen carefully’

Bauer began his opening statement by introducing his co-counsel and Fravel to the jurors.

Bauer detailed the geography of Rushford, Winona, Choice and Mabel, all towns in southeastern Minnesota. Because of the publicity surrounding Kingsbury’s disappearance, the trial was moved from Winona County to Blue Earth County after the judge granted a change of venue motion to ensure a fair trial. While the judge and deputies manning the courtroom are from Winona, the 12 jurors and five alternates are from Mankato.

He told them it’s important to note “what was gathered for evidence and what was not gathered as evidence.”

Bauer continued to tell the jurors to “listen to the evidence carefully,” claiming that law enforcement did not gather or collect certain evidence.

Kingsbury’s body was found on a road maintained by Fravel’s father, just north of where Fravel’s family lived.

According to Bauer, law enforcement, the property owner and a member of the Department of Natural Resources searched the road multiple times but never discovered her body.

During the trial, Bauer told the jurors they will hear from Kingsbury’s and Fravel’s neighbors, who, he said, will say they never heard fighting or anger and aggression from the couple.

Bauer then brought up an incident when Fravel allegedly grabbed Kingsbury’s neck and told her she could end up like Gabby Petito, a woman who was killed in 2021 by her fiance. Bauer told the jury that Fravel “hugged her” and “immediately regretted it.”

As Kingsbury’s friends are expected to testify to possible instances of domestic violence, Bauer cautioned the jurors several more times to not feel “overwhelmed,” noting that they will likely see 75 witnesses over the next few weeks. He claimed Kingsbury “was misleading her best friends” over the last few years.

“There’s a significant amount of revisionist history that exists with those testimonies,” Bauer said.

An officer is first to take the stand

When Sense arrived at Fravel and Kingsbury’s Winona residence on March 30, 2023, he told the court he was looking for “Maddi.”

He told the court that no lights were on, the doors were locked and there was no sign of forced entry. He also noted he saw a “brown, chunky substance in the backyard” that he believed was vomit.

Sense testified that he went back to his squad car and began calling Kingsbury’s phone. He then got in contact with Kingsbury’s father, who was also attempting to get in touch with her. Kingsbury’s father then gave Sense Fravel’s phone number.

Prokopowicz then played the body camera footage of Sense’s first call with Fravel. The footage showed Sense calling Fravel in his squad car the night that Kingsbury was reported missing.

According to Sense, Fravel called him back after putting his and Kingsbury’s two children to sleep.

“Nobody else has heard from her at all?” Fravel asked Sense over the phone. “I don’t know if I should be worried or what.”

During cross-examination, Bauer questioned why no one tested the vomit Sense found for DNA evidence. Sense said the only mention of it is in his report.

He then asked Sense why officers wear body cameras. Sense said the body cameras are important for gathering evidence.

After Sense concluded his testimony, Winona County District Judge Nancy Buytendorp told the prosecution to make sure their witnesses are sticking “to the facts that they are permitted to testify about” and ensure that the witnesses only refer to Kingsbury as “Madeline Kingsbury” or “Miss Kingsbury.”

State plays Fravel’s interviews with investigators

Sobotta, the investigator who interviewed Fravel once Kingsbury’s disappearance was reported, confirmed that she met with Fravel twice, with their first interview on April 1, 2023.

She said she arrived at Fravel’s parents' residence in Mabel the day after Kingsbury was reported missing. With a house full of children, family members and dogs, Sobotta described the atmosphere of the interview as “chaotic.” She and Winona Police Department Investigator Andrew Mohan interviewed Fravel on his father’s porch.

Prokopowicz played the body camera footage of the April 1 interview, which lasted around half an hour. The jurors received a transcript of the interview and were told it may not be exactly what was said.

According to the footage shown in court, Sobotta and Mohan sat with Fravel and his father. While a majority of the footage was, at times, difficult to understand, the investigators asked if they could look at his phone and told him they would be taking it.

“I’m not pointing fingers at you,” Mohan said to Fravel after he gave them the password.

After an afternoon break, Sobotta remained on the stand and described the scratches they saw on Fravel’s face and neck.

Prokopowicz then played a second interview conducted by Sobotta and Mohan on April 2, 2023. The interview, which was held in the police department office, lasted over an hour.

According to the footage, Fravel sat calmly at the desk, shifting from crossing his arms to using his hands to gesture while speaking. He told them that Kingsbury was a “great, awesome mom.”

The investigators asked whether he had anything to do with her disappearance, which he denied.

In the footage, Mohan asked about the scratches. Fravel said they’re all from his kids and dogs.

Near the end of the interview, Mohan brought up Fravel’s “infatuation” with the Gabby Petito story.

“And the guy that’s infatuated with it is sitting right in front of me,” Mohan told Fravel during the second interview. “He’s doing a really good job of keeping it together, and I’m not buying it.”