Boelter pleads guilty in lawmaker attacks, agrees to two life sentences
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Content warning: This updated story contains new, graphic details of how Vance Boelter killed Melissa Hortman.
Vance Boelter pleaded guilty Thursday to murder, stalking and firearms crimes in connection with the killings of former Minnesota DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well an attack on DFL state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and their daughter, Hope, a year ago Sunday.
Boelter’s plea agreement calls for him to serve two consecutive life sentences in prison plus 40 years in exchange for prosecutors pledging not to seek the death penalty.
“Political violence is a scourge plaguing America,” Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen told reporters following the court hearing. Rosen called the attacks “among the worst political violence crimes” the nation has seen.
According to court documents, Boelter disguised himself as a police officer and killed the Hortmans at their Brooklyn Park home early in the morning on June 14, 2025, about 90 minutes after attacking the Hoffmans at their home in Champlin. He also admitted driving to the homes of two other DFL lawmakers.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
During Thursday's court hearing, Boelter admitted to a detail not previously known. In prior accounts, prosecutors said Boelter shot Melissa Hortman as she tried to flee up the stairs of her house. In court Thursday, Boelter admitted shooting Melissa Hortman at point-blank range.
“When murdering Melissa did you press the gun to her head and fire?” Boelter defense attorney Manny Atwal asked his client. “Yes,” Boelter responded. A person in the gallery gasped and cried at the admission.
Boelter pleaded guilty to all six counts in the indictment including stalking, two counts of murder and two firearms offenses. That includes the shooting of John and Yvette Hoffman and the attempted shooting of Hope Hoffman.
Atwal went through the facts of the case line by line with Boelter, who admitted planning the attacks for months, using people-finder websites to find the home addresses of the lawmakers, and disguising himself as a police officer to get the victims to open the door.
Rosen said his prosecutors were confident they could have made a death penalty case against Boelter but that a plea deal that ensured Boelter “never sees freedom again” was “an opportunity we could just not pass up.”
Boelter also faces state charges of first-degree premeditated murder, which carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release.
In a statement following the hearing, the Hoffman family said in part, “There is no justice for Mark and Melissa Hortman, and there is not justice when our family and our state will never truly heal.”
The Hoffmans called on Americans to "treat people with respect, to stop de-humanizing each other, and to stop dividing our country with hate and rhetoric.”
Somber hearing
The killings of the Hortmans and the attack on Hoffman and his family shocked the Twin Cities and the nation last June. Thursday’s hearing was a sober reminder of the aftermath of that trauma.
Prior to the hearing, John and Yvette Hoffman were escorted in. Hope Hoffman, who witnessed the attack but was not struck by gunfire, did not attend.
Minutes later, the Hortmans’ adult children, Sophie and Colin, arrived and took their seats.
U.S. marshals brought Boelter into the courtroom through a side door. He was wearing ankle chains and a orange uniform from the Sherburne County Jail, where he’s been held since his capture last June 15 following a 43-hour manhunt.
Boelter sat at the defense table with his attorneys just before Judge John Tunheim called the case.
Boelter last year pleaded not guilty to the attacks. In a rambling, handwritten letter he allegedly wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel, Boelter said he was trained by the U.S. military “off the books” and that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “wanted me to kill [Democratic U.S. Senators] Amy Klobushar [sic]” and Tina Smith, so that Walz could run for Senate.
In messages to The New York Times through his jail’s electronic messaging service, Boelter suggested his actions were partly rooted in the Christian commandment to love one’s neighbor.
Asked about Boelter’s past writings in the wake of the plea deal, Rosen said he couldn’t speak to “what drives the criminal to want to commit this sort of brutal murder and to do it as coldly as it was done. I wonder if any of us who live law-abiding lives will ever really be able to understand that sort of motivation.”
