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The man accused of killing former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark appeared briefly in court Friday morning where his attorney said that she asked jailers to remove her client from suicide watch. 

Vance Boelter, 57, is charged in a six-count federal complaint with killing the Hortmans inside their Brooklyn Park home around 3:30 a.m. on June 14 and with shooting and seriously wounding DFL State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette at their house in Champlin about 90 minutes earlier.

Boelter appeared in a St. Paul federal courtroom for detention and preliminary hearings wearing a green 

Defense attorney Manny Atwal asked Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko to delay the hearings because her client is sleep-deprived and it’s difficult for her to communicate with him by telephone or in person. 

Pointing to the smock, Atwal said that Boelter “has been in that contraption” since his transfer to the Sherburne County Jail on June 16.

“He’s been held in a cell where the lights are on 24/7,” Atwal said. “He’s placed on a mat with no pillow where he’s supposed to sleep with the lights on 24/7, where the doors next to him slam consistently, where there’s another inmate housed next to him who’s spreading feces all over the cell.”  

Boelter wore an orange jail jumpsuit at his first hearing on June 16. For his initial appearance, U.S. Marshals had transported Boelter to court from the Hennepin County Jail, where he’d been held for about nine hours following his arrest near his rural Sibley County home a day earlier following a 

Atwal added that her client has been “cleared medically,” and said that she asked jail staff to move Boelter out of the suicide watch unit to segregation, where he can wear a regular jail uniform.

“Your honor, I haven’t really slept in 12 to 14 days,” Boelter responded when Micko asked if he consented to delaying the hearing. “I appreciate the motion to extend this so I can get some sleep. I’ve never been suicidal, and I’m not suicidal now."

Micko rescheduled the hearing for Thursday. 

In a statement Friday afternoon, Sherburne County Sheriff Joel Brott refuted Boelter’s claims of poor jail conditions.

“Security cameras capturing the activity of the alleged assassin in his cell on ‘suicide precaution’ show he was resting peacefully with his eyes closed for seven straight hours, appearing to be asleep, from approximately 10:40 p.m. Thursday until 5:45 a.m. Friday,” Brott writes. “Correctional officers doing routine welfare checks during the same time period believed that the alleged assassin was asleep.”

Brott adds that the lights need to be on 24/7 “so correctional officers doing welfare checks can see that the inmates are OK. Jails are built with heavy metal doors that make noise when they are opened and closed.” Brott also notes that Boelter’s cell is “spotless clean” his mattress has a pillow sewn into it, and that Boelter has access to a phone and shower daily and has not missed any meals since his arrival. 

Federal defendants in Minnesota who have been ordered to remain in pretrial detention are typically held in the Sherburne County Jail. The facility also houses immigration detainees.

Boelter is also facing state murder charges in Hennepin County, but the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office says the federal case will proceed first. 

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The man accused of killing former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark appeared briefly in court Friday morning where his attorney said that she asked jailers to remove her client from suicide watch. 


MPR News correspondent Matt Sepic gives an update on Vance Boelter's court hearing

courtroom sketch of manny atwal and boelter

‘I’m not suicidal,’ says suspected Hortman assassin as court hearing is delayed

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