Background: News footage of the scene where Nichole Shoultz crashed Allen Michael Alberts’ pickup truck on May 2 (WDAY). Insets (left to right): Allen Michael Alberts and Pamela Breckenridge (Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office).
A Minnesota man who allegedly waited to get medical help for his dying girlfriend had some help, and now his mother faces felony charges.
Pamela Breckenridge, 50, was charged with three counts of aiding an offender in connection with the death of 40-year-old Nichole Shoultz, who died after a car accident on May 2 involving Breckenridge’s son, 33-year-old Allen Alberts, who was also the victim’s boyfriend. As Law&Crime previously reported, police said Alberts brought Shoultz to his house and kept her in a bathtub instead of bringing her to the hospital. She later succumbed to her injuries, and now police said Breckenridge should share responsibility.
Police said Shoultz had a no-contact order against Alberts, and he was afraid of going to jail if law enforcement found out they were together that weekend.
According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, deputies from the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call from the hospital where Shoultz was pronounced dead. When the deputies spoke to Alberts and Breckenridge, they both allegedly “provided stories that were not consistent with the evidence.” When they were confronted by police, both mother and son admitted that they lied because “Alberts did not want to get in trouble or go to jail.”
Police said Breckenridge told them that she was at the home shared by her son and Shoultz on the evening of May 1, making a point to say that Alberts was not there since that would violate the no-contact order. Breckenridge said Shoultz left the house in Alberts’ truck between 12:30 and 1 a.m. Police said phone records showed that Breckenridge received calls from Alberts four times between 12:30 and 3:30 a.m., and then she called Alberts at 3:32 a.m.
According to the complaint, Breckenridge claimed that she found the truck, but could not find Shoultz. She eventually did claim to find Shoultz, then called Alberts to help bring her back to their house. Breckenridge told police that she and Alberts tried to help Shoultz, saying, “We do the whole chest rub, trying to see if that will do anything. Um, nothing we were trying was working.” She said she used a stethoscope to listen to Shoultz’s breathing, which she claimed was normal.
When police asked Alberts about what transpired that night, he said he and Shoultz had a fight after leaving a bar around 2 a.m. After he claimed Shoultz punched him and tried to take control of the steering wheel, he pulled over and got out of the truck. She then drove off without him, and Alberts told police he saw the truck “go over a hill” before he heard a crash. He went back to his house to get his car so he could bring Shoultz back to their house. Alberts said she was “unresponsive but breathing.” He told police he placed her in the bathtub “in hopes of waking her.”
Alberts called for his mother to come over at 3:20 a.m. to help him move Shoultz to the living room couch. Alberts told police that Shoultz was “unresponsive the entire time.”
While still at the house, police said Alberts and Breckenridge “considered” calling 911, “but he was concerned” about violating the no-contact order and chose not to call.
Alberts was charged with second-degree manslaughter and is still in custody at the Otter Tail County Detention Center, where he is being held on $500,000 bond. His next court date is scheduled for May 18.
Breckenridge was charged with three counts of aiding an offender and booked into the Otter Tail County Detention Center on May 8. She did not appear on the jail roster on Tuesday. Her next court date is scheduled for June 3.
