Attorneys for a man accused of killing a top Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband have said prosecutors have turned over a massive amount of evidence, requiring more time for review. Vance Boelter, 58, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the deaths of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well as attempted murder in the shootings of state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.
At a status conference on Wednesday, federal prosecutor Harry Jacobs told the court that investigators have provided substantially all evidence collected against Boelter. Federal defender Manny Atwal said the evidence includes over 130,000 pages of PDF documents, more than 800 hours of audio and video recordings, and over 2,000 photographs from what authorities have called the largest manhunt in Minnesota history.
Atwal noted that her team has spent close to 110 hours just downloading the material, not yet reviewing it, and that the process has been slowed by the federal government shutdown. “That's not unusual for a complex case but it is a lot of information for us to review,” she told Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster.
Jacobs said there is no timeline for when the Department of Justice will decide whether to seek the death penalty, a decision that rests with US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has never had a federal death penalty case, but the Trump administration is pushing for greater use of capital punishment.
The shootings occurred in the early hours of June 14 when a man disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car came to the victims' suburban homes. Boelter was captured near his home in rural Green Isle the next day. He faces federal and state charges including murder and attempted murder in what prosecutors have called a political assassination. The next status conference is scheduled for 12 February.
