By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Related Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys within the case of a person charged with killing a high Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband mentioned Wednesday that prosecutors have turned over a large quantity of proof to the protection, and that his attorneys want extra time to assessment it.
Federal prosecutor Harry Jacobs instructed the court docket that investigators have offered considerably the entire proof they’ve collected towards Vance Boelter. He’s pleaded not responsible to homicide within the killing of former Minnesota Home Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and to tried homicide within the shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his spouse. Some proof, similar to lab stories, continues to return in.
Federal defender Manny Atwal mentioned on the standing convention that the proof consists of over 130,000 pages of PDF paperwork, over 800 hours of audio and video recordings, and over 2,000 images from what authorities have known as the biggest hunt for a suspect in Minnesota historical past.
Atwal mentioned her group has spent near 110 hours simply downloading the fabric — not reviewing it — and that they’re nonetheless evaluating the proof, a course of she mentioned has gone slowly as a result of federal authorities shutdown.
“That’s common for a fancy case however it’s lot of data for us to assessment,” Atwal instructed Justice of the Peace Decide Dulce Foster.
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FILE – This picture made out there by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Workplace exhibits Vance Luther Boelter, the person accused of assassinating the highest Democrat within the Minnesota Home, as he was arrested late Sunday, June 15, 2025. (Ramsey County Sheriff’s Workplace through AP)
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FILE – This picture made out there by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Workplace exhibits Vance Luther Boelter, the person accused of assassinating the highest Democrat within the Minnesota Home, as he was arrested late Sunday, June 15, 2025. (Ramsey County Sheriff’s Workplace through AP)
Jacobs mentioned he didn’t have a timeline for when the Division of Justice would determine whether or not to search the demise penalty towards Boelter. The choice shall be as much as U.S. Lawyer Common Pam Bondi.
Foster scheduled the following standing convention for Feb. 12 and requested prosecutors to maintain the protection and court docket up to date within the meantime about their demise penalty resolution. She didn’t set a trial date.
Hortman and her husband, Mark, and Hoffman and his spouse, Yvette, have been shot by a person who got here to their suburban houses within the early hours of June 14, disguised as a police officer and driving a pretend squad automobile.
Boelter, 58, was captured close to his dwelling in rural Inexperienced Isle late the following day. He faces federal and state prices together with homicide and tried homicide in what prosecutors have known as a political assassination.
Boelter, who was sporting orange and yellow jail clothes, mentioned nothing through the nine-minute listening to.
Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has by no means had a federal demise penalty case. However the Trump administration is pushing for higher use of capital punishment.
Boelter’s lawyer has not commented on the substance of the allegations. His motivations stay murky and statements he has made to some media haven’t been totally clear. Associates have described him as a politically conservative evangelical Christian, and occasional preacher and missionary.
Boelter claimed to the conservative outlet Blaze Information in August that he by no means meant to shoot anybody that night time however that his plans went horribly unsuitable.
He instructed Blaze in a collection of a whole lot of texts through his jail’s messaging system that he went to the Hoffmans’ dwelling to make residents’ arrests over what he known as his two-year undercover investigation into 400 deaths from the COVID-19 vaccine that he believed have been being coated up by the state.
However he instructed Blaze he opened fireplace when the Hoffmans and their grownup daughter tried to push him out the door and spoiled his plan. He didn’t clarify why went on to allegedly shoot the Hortmans and their golden retriever, Gilbert, who needed to be euthanized.
Hennepin County Lawyer Mary Moriarty mentioned when she introduced Boelter’s indictment on state prices in August that she gave no credence to the claims Boelter had produced from jail.
In different latest developments, a Sibley County decide final month granted Boelter’s spouse a divorce.
