Minnesota lawmaker killer gets two life terms plus 40 years

Vance Boelter was sentenced Thursday morning to two life terms in prison plus 40 years after admitting he shot two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses in attacks that killed former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman. The punishment closes a federal case that has become a test of how the justice system responds when violence targets elected officials at home.

Boelter pleaded guilty in federal court on June 11, 2026, to six charges tied to the June 14, 2025 shootings at the homes of Hortman in Brooklyn Park and state Sen. John Hoffman in Champlin. The attacks also wounded John Hoffman, his wife, Yvette, and their daughter, Hope, and triggered a two-day manhunt before Boelter was captured.

The plea agreement called for two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years, and it took the death penalty off the table. Federal prosecutors said Boelter’s crimes were among the most serious ever committed in the District of Minnesota, underscoring the scale of the violence that stunned the state and the Capitol community.

The fallout reached well beyond the courtroom. House Resolution 519 condemned the attacks in Brooklyn Park and Champlin and called for unity and rejection of political violence across Minnesota and the United States. Minnesota legislative leaders also used the case to renew warnings about political violence and heated rhetoric, as the killings and shootings sharpened attention on the risks faced by lawmakers away from the Capitol.

Boelter had been appointed about six years earlier by Gov. Tim Walz to the Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Board, a detail that drew added scrutiny after the shootings. The Hoffman family has also filed a civil lawsuit against Boelter, extending the case beyond the criminal sentence and into a separate fight over accountability for the June 2025 attacks.