BISMARCK, N.D. – The North Dakota Supreme Court has upheld a district court ruling in a homicide case out of Grand Forks.
Nicholas Narveson appealed to the state’s high court after a jury found him guilty of murder, terrorizing and reckless endangerment. The charges are in connection with a July 2024 shooting death of James Jorgenson at Sledsters Food and Brew in Grand Forks.
The appeal claimed insufficient evidence ‘to support the essential element that Narveson did not act in self-defense’ and claimed the district court ‘errored by allowing video jail calls of the defendant to be viewed by the jury, which undeniably displayed the defendant in prison style garb as well as being incarcerated.’
The high court ruled that neither Narveson’s attorney, nor the state, requested instructions on the lesser included offenses of manslaughter or negligent homicide.’
“A district court need not include jury instructions that are not requested by a party,” the court wrote in its opinion affirming the lower court’s decisions.
It also contended that the decision to admit the jail call video was not an abuse of discretion.
“The court conducted a Rule 403 analysis on the record, drawing a reasoned distinction between a twenty-one-minute video showing the defendant in prison clothing and compelling a defendant to sit in prison clothing for the duration of a multiple-day trial,” the Supreme Court ruled.
