Minnesota man pleads guilty to federal charges in state lawmaker shooting case
A Minnesota man pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal charges that he killed Minnesota's House speaker and her husband nearly a year ago and also attempted to murder a state senator and his wife, according to local media reports from the courtroom in Minneapolis.
Vance Luther Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to six federal murder, firearms, and stalking charges related to the attacks 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, "in accordance with the terms delineated in a proposed plea agreement," according to a letter that federal prosecutors sent judges in the case on Wednesday. At Thursday's hearing, they recommended that the judge sentence Boelter to two life sentences plus 40 years, according to the local media reports.
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.
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 has 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 and Deepa Babington)
Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.
This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 11:18 AM.