MINNEAPOLIS (CN) — A federal judge sentenced Vance Boelter to two consecutive life terms plus 40 years on Thursday for the targeted shootings and killings of Minnesota lawmakers last summer.
Senior U.S. District Judge John Tunheim presided over the hearing in Minnesota federal court, where Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, faced final sentencing following his June guilty plea. The charges stem from last year’s killings of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shootings of state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.
Tunheim, a Bill Clinton appointee, said it’s the longest sentence he has ever imposed.
“This was a brutal attack on elected public officials and their families, which is truly an attack on democracy itself,” he said, noting the state may never be the same.
John Hoffman, who survived nine bullet wounds—and whose wife survived eight—said Boelter permanently changed every aspect of his life.
“The court will announce the defendant’s sentence; mine continues every day,” he said, emphasizing that Boelter failed in his attempt to silence voices.
His daughter Hope, who said she believed her parents were going to die, expressed hate for the “failed systems” that enabled Boelter to be fueled by an “ideology of hate.”
Federal prosecutors characterized Boelter’s acts as an “assault on democracy” designed to forcibly alter Minnesota’s state government.
“These crimes are among the most serious crimes ever committed in the state of Minnesota and this country,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Forbes said.
Boelter, who sat quietly in an orange jumpsuit as 14 victims and family members spoke about the atrocities committed that night, spoke briefly as the hearing concluded.
“To every person I have caused loss, pain, heartache, confusion, sadness, shame or loneliness, I am truly sorry,” he said.
As he spoke, many in the gallery stood up and left the courtroom.
Federal prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for Boelter’s guilty plea.
Last month, Boelter held up his end of the plea bargain in front of a crowd of victims and family members of the deceased, who watched through teary eyes as he admitted to harrowing details of the attacks, including pressing a gun to Melissa Hortman’s head and firing as she fled up the stairs of her home.
J. Carroll Hortman, Mark Hortman’s father, spoke glowingly of both his son and daughter-in-law, calling Melissa Hortman a brilliant, decisive, and persuasive leader.
“If you have not experienced the murders of not one, but two of your precious children, you cannot imagine the pain, the void that fills every second of your life,” he said, adding Mark and Melissa will never get to experience the joy of becoming grandparents that they gave him.
“The astonishing damage that Boelter caused to his victims and to the state of Minnesota will never be cured,” prosecutors said in the sentencing recommendation. “Justice requires that Boelter never be free again.”
Defense attorneys requested Boelter serve his time at USP Coleman II in Florida, noting he is ready to take responsibility for his actions and would appreciate access to employment opportunities at the prison.
Boelter’s shooting spree began just after 2 a.m. on June 14, 2025. He first attacked the Hoffmans, who were both critically injured but survived, and later filed a personal injury suit against their assailant.
He then drove to the home of state Representative Kristin Bahner—who was not home—and later state Senator Ann Rest’s residence, before arriving at the Hortmans’ home in Brooklyn Park, where he shot and killed the couple.
Boelter was arrested some 40 hours later in a field near his home following a massive two-day manhunt that law enforcement dubbed the largest search for a suspect in state history.
“Boelter did not simply end two lives,” prosecutors said in the sentencing recommendation. “Melissa and Mark were more than public figures and more than the victims identified in the counts of conviction. To Sophie and Colin, they were simply mom and dad. Boelter converted that loving home into the scene of their parents’ murders and left an entire family to carry the resulting sorrow for the rest of their lives.”
Sophie and Colin Hortman both spoke at the sentencing, with shaking bodies and voices as they recounted the night their parents were killed.
“In one night, our family went from full to shattered. … There is no satisfying outcome,” Colin Hortman said. “I don’t want to keep feeling angry all the time. You don’t get the rest of my life too.”
Boelter identified himself as a police officer in order to enter lawmakers’ homes—addresses he found through an investigative effort online, where he also identified surveillance points, phone numbers, and other personal and identifiable information of his targets.
Investigators recovered five firearms, body armor, a handwritten confession addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel and notebooks listing 45 political and activist targets from Boelter’s vehicle, which was outfitted with emergency lights to confuse his targets.
It initially appeared the Justice Department would pursue the death penalty against Boelter, though his promise to plead guilty and take consecutive life terms was an opportunity “we just could not pass up,” according to Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen.
J. Carroll Hortman said his family was deprived of the trial they deserved, which would have revealed Boelter’s motivations, and that he should have been put to death.
“When the death penalty question was in the hands of Todd Blanche, I asked to speak with him. He blew me off,” he said. “He didn’t care that they got killed, he just wanted to get this over with, so he made the gutless decision to save money and save time.”
Prosecutors believe Boelter acted with intent to shift the balance of power in both houses of the Minnesota Legislature amid a near-even party divide.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced after the sentencing it will begin the state-level prosecution of Boelter.
Minnesota does not have a state death penalty.
Melissa Hortman, who served as House Speaker from 2019 to early 2025, was a key legislative leader known for passing landmark state policy, while her husband, Mark, worked in technology and volunteered extensively in the Twin Cities community.
Minnesota Representative Zack Stevenson, leader of the Minnesota House DFL, said Boelter’s actions sent a message of terror to everyone who serves in public life.
“I want the court to know that Melissa would hate that,” he said. “This man failed. Our caucus is stronger, more unified, and more dedicated than ever. … He deserves to be forgotten.”
Source: courthousenews.com, Ryan Luetkemeyer, July 23, 2026
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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