This booking photo provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office shows Vance Boelter in Green Isle, Minn., on June 16, 2025. (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office via AP)
MINNEAPOLIS (KFGO/WCCO) – Convicted murderer Vance Boelter appears in court Monday on state charges related to last year’s shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses. Boelter avoided the death penalty when he entered a guilty plea in the deaths of Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. He also pleaded guilty to wounding Minnesota state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, who both survived.
Boelter was sentenced to two life sentences plus 40 years in federal court last month. He was booked into the Hennepin County jail on Sunday in advance of his court appearance.
“It’s better for the victims to also have a prosecution in this case so that every extent of the law is being used to make sure (he) stays behind bars for his full entire life,” said Twin Cities defense attorney Joe Tamburino.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has remained adamant that the state’s case will continue regardless of what’s happened at the federal level, making the point any state conviction wouldn’t be subject to a presidential pardon.
“(Boelter) might want to serve some of his time, or his federal sentence in a certain facility,” said Tamburino. “Perhaps the state, if he negotiates this case in tandem with his federal case, he might be able to accomplish that.”
Monday’s hearing begins at 1:15 p.m. at the Public Safety Facility in downtown Minneapolis.
According to officials in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, a guilty verdict on any of the first-degree premeditated murder charges is a mandatory life in prison sentence without the possibility of parole.
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