A Minnesota burglary charge may sometimes be reduced to trespassing when the evidence does not support the additional elements required for burglary. The most important difference is usually criminal intent: burglary requires proof that a person entered a building without consent and intended to commit a crime inside, or actually committed a crime after entering. Ordinary trespass does not require proof of that same criminal purpose.

That does not mean every weak burglary case automatically becomes trespassing. The facts