The man accused of killing a top Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband is due to change plea

The man accused of killing a top Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband is due to change plea 1 of 3 | A photo of Mark and Melissa Hortman is displayed during their funeral service inside the sanctuary at the Basilica of St. Mary’s in Minneapolis on June 28, 2025. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP, Pool, File) 2 of 3 | This booking photo provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office shows Vance Boelter in Green Isle, Minn., on June 16, 2025. (Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File) 3 of 3 | This courtroom sketch shows Vance Boelter, who is charged with killing the top Democrat in the Minnesota-house" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="144058" data-entity-type="organization">Minnesota House and her husband and wounding a state senator and his wife, appears at federal court in Minneapolis on Aug. 7, 2025. (Cedric Hohnstadt via AP, File) Updated 6:06 AM MESZ, June 11, 2026 Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Minneapolis (AP) — The man charged in the political assassinations of the top Democrat in the Minnesota-house" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="144058" data-entity-type="organization">Minnesota House and her husband, as well as the attempted murders of a state senator and his wife, is due to appear in federal court Thursday to change his not-guilty plea, after federal prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty against him. The U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis notified the court Wednesday that the Justice Department would not seek the death penalty against Vance Boelter in accordance with a proposed plea agreement. Boelter’s attorneys did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The court filing did not detail the terms of the plea agreement. Former Minnesota-house" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="144058" data-entity-type="organization">Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were shot by a man who came to their doors in the early hours of June 14, 2025, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car. The Hortmans’ golden retriever was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized. Boelter, 58, was captured near his home in rural Green Isle late the next day after what prosecutors have called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history. He faces federal and state murder, attempted murder and other charges. His state case has been on hold pending the resolution of his federal charges. Feds won’t seek death penalty in plea deal with man accused of killing top Minnesota Democrat 3 MIN READ Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has never had a federal death penalty case. Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, said the federal plea deal would not affect Boelter’s state charges. While the Trump administration has pushed for greater use of capital punishment, there were questions about whether Boelter’s case would qualify for the death penalty under federal law. Prosecutors have called the shootings political. When they announced the federal indictment in July, they released a rambling handwritten letter they say Boelter wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel in which he confessed to the attacks. However, the letter didn’t make clear why he targeted the Hortmans or the Hoffmans. In some messages to media, Boelter referenced a vague and cryptic “investigation” he had been carrying out, sometimes suggesting it was about the COVID-19 vaccine. Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian and occasional preacher and missionary, who held politically conservative views and had been struggling to find work. John Hoffman said in a lawsuit filed against Boelter in April that his left arm and hand likely would never fully recover, and that he also had permanent injuries to his digestive and urinary systems. Yvette Hoffman was left with permanent physical weakness, the lawsuit said, while their adult daughter, Hope Hoffman, who was there and called 911 but was not shot, suffered severe psychological trauma.