A candlelight vigil for Melissa and Mark Hortman was held outside the capitol building in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on 18 June 2025. Photograph: Steven Garcia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock.
Vance Boelter pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to the political assassinations of the top Democrat in the Minnesota House of Representatives and her husband, as well as the non-fatal shootings of a state senator and his wife. This came after prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty.
Boelter was charged with murdering Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota House Speaker, and her husband, Mark Hortman, and with shooting state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. He approached their homes in the early hours of 14 June 2025, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car.
The Hortmans' golden retriever suffered severe injuries and had to be euthanized.
Boelter, 58, was captured near his home in rural Green Isle the day after the shootings following what prosecutors described as the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history. He also faces state charges, which have been on hold pending the resolution of his federal case.
The US Attorney's Office in Minneapolis notified the court on Wednesday that the Justice Department would not seek the death penalty against Boelter in accordance with a proposed plea agreement, and the court scheduled the change-of-plea hearing for Thursday.
Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has never had a federal death penalty case. Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, stated that the federal plea deal would not affect Boelter's state charges.
While the Trump administration has pushed for greater use of capital punishment, questions remained about whether Boelter's case would qualify for the death penalty under federal law.
Prosecutors have described the shootings as politically motivated. When they announced the federal indictment in July, they released a rambling handwritten letter that Boelter allegedly wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel, confessing to the attacks. However, the letter did not clarify why he targeted the Hortmans or the Hoffmans.
In some messages to media, Boelter referenced a vague and cryptic “investigation” he had been carrying out, sometimes suggesting it was about the Covid-19 vaccine.
Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian and occasional preacher and missionary, who held politically conservative views and had been struggling to find work.
John Hoffman stated in a lawsuit filed against Boelter in April that his left arm and hand would probably never fully recover, and that he also had permanent injuries to his digestive and urinary systems.
Yvette Hoffman was left with permanent physical weakness, according to the lawsuit, while their adult daughter, Hope Hoffman, who was present and called 911 but was not shot, suffered severe psychological trauma.
