Minnesota’s Assassin Gets Two Life Sentences Plus 40 Years. His State Murder Trial Hasn’t Even Started.
On July 23, 2026, U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim sentenced Vance Boelter to two consecutive life sentences plus a consecutive 40-year term — no possibility of parole, ever — for the June 14, 2025 assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (D-MN) and her husband Mark Hortman, and the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman (D-MN) and his wife Yvette Hoffman, who both survived.
The sentence closes the federal case, which Boelter resolved on June 11, 2026, by pleading guilty to all six counts against him rather than risk the death penalty. It does not close his exposure. Hennepin County has separately charged him with eight state counts — including two counts of first-degree premeditated murder — and his first appearance on those charges isn’t scheduled until August 3, 2026.
Boelter’s capture, on June 15, 2025, ended the largest manhunt in Minnesota history. Thirteen months later, one of the two cases against him is finished. The other has not begun.
- 2 — consecutive life sentences, plus a consecutive 40-year term, imposed by Judge Tunheim on July 23, 2026 — no parole, ever
- 8 — separate state counts Hennepin County has filed against Boelter, including two first-degree murder charges the federal plea never touched
- 43 — hours investigators spent hunting Boelter across Minnesota in 2025 — the largest manhunt in state history
- Aug. 3 — 2026 — Boelter's first scheduled court appearance on the pending state charges
Boelter pleaded guilty on June 11, 2026, to all six federal counts brought against him: two counts of stalking, two counts of murder through the use of a firearm, and two counts of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. The plea covered the killing of Melissa Hortman (D-MN) and her husband, Mark Hortman, at their Brooklyn Park home on June 14, 2025, and the shooting of John Hoffman (D-MN) and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their Champlin home the same night. Both Hoffmans survived. In exchange for the plea, federal prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty; Boelter accepted the statutory maximum instead.
That maximum arrived Thursday. Judge Tunheim handed down two life sentences, ordered to run consecutively, plus a consecutive 40-year term on the firearms counts — meaning Boelter serves every day of every sentence, back to back, with no possibility of parole on any of them.
“The longest sentence I have imposed after hearing thousands of cases over the years, but it is well deserved.”
Judge John R. Tunheim · U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota
Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen, whose office prosecuted the case, described the sentencing as a floor, not a ceiling, for how the Justice Department intends to treat attacks on elected officials going forward.
“The astonishing damage that Boelter caused to his victims and to the State of Minnesota will never be cured. Justice requires that Boelter never be free ever again.”
Daniel N. Rosen · U.S. Attorney, District of Minnesota
Rosen went further, framing the sentence as a warning beyond this one case: “Those who commit political violence at any level should take heed that the Department of Justice will seek and obtain the longest prison terms available for their crimes.”
Before Judge Tunheim announced the sentence, the people Boelter shot and the families he shattered addressed him directly. Yvette Hoffman, shot alongside her husband John at their Champlin home, described the moment she believed she was dying on her own laundry room floor.
“I'll never forget looking down and watching my blood stream down that white washing machine as I felt myself sinking to the floor and fading. I genuinely believed, your honor, I was dying.”
Yvette Hoffman · shot alongside her husband, state Sen. John Hoffman (D-MN)
State Rep. Kristin Bahner (D-MN), whose home Boelter visited that same night without shooting, told the court the attack has permanently altered how her family sees public service.
“Nothing could prepare me for an assassin at my door... I never dreamt that doing the job that I love would put my family in harm's way, forever shattering their innocence.”
State Rep. Kristin Bahner (D-MN)
The Hoffman family, including daughter Hope Hoffman, delivered a joint statement that left little room for the euphemisms that often soften victim testimony.
“Today, our family came together with strength to share how evil impacted us for the rest of our lives. No sentence can do justice for the horrific and unconscionable acts this monster perpetrated on June 14th 2025.”
The Hoffman family · joint victim-impact statement
The federal counts Boelter pleaded guilty to were narrow by design — stalking and firearms offenses that gave federal prosecutors jurisdiction, but not the full scope of what happened that night. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty (D) has filed a separate, broader set of state charges under case number 27-CR-25-14999: two counts of first-degree premeditated murder for the killings of Melissa and Mark Hortman, and four counts of attempted first-degree murder covering John Hoffman, Yvette Hoffman, their daughter Hope Hoffman, and Rep. Kristin Bahner — whose home Boelter visited that night without firing a shot.
Two additional counts round out the eight: felony animal cruelty, for killing the Hortmans’ dog, Gilbert, and impersonating a police officer, reflecting the mask, tactical vest, badge, and squad-style vehicle Boelter allegedly used to gain access to his targets’ homes.
“Mr. Boelter will sit in a Hennepin County courtroom and be held accountable for his actions.”
Mary Moriarty (D) · Hennepin County Attorney
None of these eight counts has been adjudicated. Boelter has not entered a plea in the state case, and he is presumed innocent of these charges unless and until a Hennepin County jury says otherwise. His first appearance on the state docket is scheduled for August 3, 2026 — more than a year after the killings and more than a week after his federal sentencing.
Both cases trace back to the same 43-hour stretch. After the Brooklyn Park and Champlin shootings on the night of June 14, 2025, hundreds of law enforcement officers and roughly 20 SWAT teams fanned out across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and beyond in what officials have called the largest manhunt in Minnesota history. Boelter was found and taken into custody on June 15, 2025, near his home in Green Isle, in rural Sibley County, roughly an hour southwest of the Twin Cities.
Almost a year passed between that capture and Boelter’s decision to change his federal plea. He fought the charges before ultimately admitting to all six counts on June 11, 2026, clearing the path to Thursday’s sentencing.
Strip away the animal-cruelty and impersonation counts, and six of Hennepin County’s eight state charges are about the people Boelter targeted directly: two counts of first-degree murder for the Hortmans, and four counts of attempted first-degree murder for the Hoffmans and Bahner. Those six charges are the ones still standing between Boelter and a second, state-level reckoning — one Thursday’s federal sentencing did not touch.
Melissa Hortman (D-MN) — Minnesota House Speaker Emerita, killed alongside her husband Mark Hortman at their Brooklyn Park home on June 14, 2025.
John Hoffman (D-MN) — Minnesota state senator, shot alongside his wife Yvette at their Champlin home the same night; both survived.
Kristin Bahner (D-MN) — Minnesota state representative, whose home Boelter visited that night without firing a shot — conduct now charged as attempted first-degree murder in the pending state case.
All three are Democratic state legislators. Boelter has been convicted, by his own guilty plea, of the federal counts tied to the Hortman and Hoffman attacks. He has not been convicted of anything in the separate state case, including the charges involving Bahner, and remains presumed innocent there.
What’s resolved: Boelter’s guilt on six federal counts, and a sentence — two consecutive life terms plus a consecutive 40 years — that guarantees he never leaves prison. What remains open: eight state charges, a presumption of innocence that still legally applies to every one of them, and a Hennepin County courtroom that hasn’t yet heard a single word of testimony.
Judge John R. Tunheim sentenced Vance Boelter to two consecutive life terms plus a consecutive 40 years on July 23, 2026, closing the federal case over his assassination of Melissa Hortman (D-MN) and her husband and the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman (D-MN) and his wife. But Hennepin County’s eight state charges — including murder counts the federal plea never covered, and a charge tied to Rep. Kristin Bahner (D-MN) — remain entirely unresolved, with Boelter’s first state court appearance still more than a week away as of this writing.
