Man who killed Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman receives consecutive life sentences

Vance Boelter was sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years for shooting one Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and killing another and her husband last year.

Boelter, 58, was sentenced after pleading guilty to stalking and murdering former Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in their Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, home on June 14, 2025.

Melissa Hortman was a Catholic who once taught Sunday school and volunteered in her parish’s children’s faith formation program.

She and her husband “had been a part of the St. Timothy Parish community,”  Father Joe Whalen, the pastor of the Blaine, Minnesota, parish, said in a statement following the murders.

U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim sentenced Boelter in federal court on July 23.

Boelter was also sentenced for the stalking and shooting of Sen. John Hoffman, D-Minnesota, and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, and the attempted shooting of their daughter Hope Hoffman, who all survived Boelter’s attack in their Champlin, Minnesota, home.

Boelter previously pleaded guilty June 11 to the six charges including two stalkings, two murders through use of a firearm, and two federal firearm-shooting offenses. Through his plea agreement, Boelter was able to avoid the possibility of the death penalty.

“Vance Boelter’s crimes rank among the most horrific this office has ever prosecuted,” U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said in a press release.

“Today, the United States ensured that Boelter will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of release. 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,” he said.

In a statement following the attacks, Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, recalled meeting both Hortman and Hoffman at the state capitol a few months before the shootings during a meeting of bishops with state leaders.

“I was deeply impressed by both,” Barron said in a statement. “Rep. Hortman listened to us with sharp intelligence and acute attention.”

Both lawmakers also met regularly with the local Catholic bishops, according to Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis.