June 11 (Reuters) – A Minnesota man pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal charges that he killed Minnesota’s House speaker and her husband and attempted to murder a state senator and his wife, according to court records.
Vance Luther Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to six federal murder, firearms, and stalking charges related to the attacks nearly a year ago on the state lawmakers, changing a not guilty plea he had entered in August.
The change of plea came after the Justice Department decided not to seek the death penalty against Boelter, as long as he agreed to a plea under which he could receive two life sentences plus 40 years in prison, Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said at a press conference after Thursday’s hearing.
Rosen said his office believed they could have prevailed in getting a death sentence, but “when you have a defendant that is prepared to plead guilty, take consecutive life terms plus to ensure that he never sees freedom again in his entire life, that was an opportunity that we just could not pass up.”
Boelter disguised himself as a police officer to carry out the June 14, 2025 shootings. He wore a silicone mask and drove an SUV with a license plate that simply read, “Police,” in which officers later found a list of more than 45 other Minnesota legislators and officials.
He fatally shot Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband Mark, in their home and shot and wounded another Democratic lawmaker, state Senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette, in their home a few miles away.
John and Yvette Hoffman sat in the front row during Thursday’s court hearing as Boelter described the shootings, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
The shootings were a dramatic example of how political violence has spiked in the United States in recent years, and left many unsettled in Minnesota, a state known for civility and bipartisanship. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called the killing of Hortman and her husband a “politically motivated assassination” and Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson called it “horrific political violence.”
Boelter was captured by police after a two-day manhunt, the largest in Minnesota’s history.
He also faces state charges including two counts of first-degree premeditated murder and four counts of first-degree attempted murder, according to local media reports.
(Reporting by Julia Harte, editing by Donna Bryson, Deepa Babington and Bill Berkrot)
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