Plea deal includes two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years
Vance Boelter, 59, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in federal court in Minneapolis for the politically motivated killings that took the life of Minnesota’s top Democratic lawmaker and her husband and wounded two others.
Boelter pleaded guilty in June to six counts after federal prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. Under the plea agreement, he will serve two consecutive life sentences plus an additional 40 years — the maximum sentence available short of capital punishment, according to both prosecutors and federal defenders.
The crimes unfolded nearly a year ago in the Minneapolis area. Boelter admitted that he spent months identifying and stalking his targets. He then drove to their homes in the middle of the night, disguised as a police officer, with the intention of killing them.
At the first home, he shot and killed House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. He then went to the home of state Sen. John Hoffman, where he critically wounded Hoffman and his wife Yvette.
Hortman, a Democrat, was the speaker of the Minnesota House at the time of her death. Hoffman, also a Democrat, was a sitting state senator. The attacks shook Minnesota’s political establishment and prompted security upgrades for state lawmakers in the months that followed.
Boelter was arrested after a two-day manhunt. His sentencing Thursday brings the federal case to a close, though state charges and a civil lawsuit from the Hoffman family remain pending.