MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys in the case of a man charged with killing a top Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband said Wednesday that prosecutors have turned over a massive amount of evidence to the defense, and that his lawyers need more time to review it.
Federal prosecutor Harry Jacobs told the court that investigators have provided substantially all of the evidence they have collected against Vance Boelter. He's pleaded not guilty to murder
in the killing of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and to attempted murder in the shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Some evidence, such as lab reports, continues to come in.
Federal defender Manny Atwal said at the status conference that the evidence includes over 130,000 pages of PDF documents, over 800 hours of audio and video recordings, and over 2,000 photographs from what authorities have called the largest hunt for a suspect in Minnesota history.
Atwal said her team has spent close to 110 hours just downloading the material — not reviewing it — and that they're still evaluating the evidence, a process she said has gone slowly due to the federal government shutdown.
“That's not unusual for a complex case but it is lot of information for us to review,” Atwal told Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster.
Jacobs said he didn't have a timeline for when the Department of Justice would decide whether to seek the death penalty against Boelter. The decision will be up to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Foster scheduled the next status conference for Feb. 12 and asked prosecutors to keep the defense and court updated in the meantime about their death penalty decision. She did not set a trial date.
Hortman and her husband, Mark, and Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot by a man who came to their suburban homes in the early hours of June 14, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car.
Boelter, 58, was captured near his home in rural Green Isle late the next day. He faces federal and state charges including murder and attempted murder in what prosecutors have called a political assassination.
Boelter, who was wearing orange and yellow jail clothing, said nothing during the nine-minute hearing.
Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has never had a federal death penalty case. But the Trump administration is pushing for greater use of capital punishment.
Boelter’s attorney has not commented on the substance of the allegations. His motivations remain murky and statements he has made to some media haven’t been fully clear. Friends have described him as a politically conservative evangelical Christian, and occasional preacher and missionary.
Boelter claimed to the conservative outlet Blaze News in August that he never intended to shoot anyone that night but that his plans went horribly wrong.
He told Blaze in a series of hundreds of texts via his jail’s messaging system that he went to the Hoffmans’ home to make citizens’ arrests over what he called his two-year undercover investigation into 400 deaths from the COVID-19 vaccine that he believed were being covered up by the state.
But he told Blaze he opened fire when the Hoffmans and their adult daughter tried to push him out the door and spoiled his plan. He did not explain why went on to allegedly shoot the Hortmans and their golden retriever, Gilbert, who had to be euthanized.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said when she announced Boelter’s indictment on state charges in August that she gave no credence to the claims Boelter had made from jail.
In other recent developments, a Sibley County judge last month granted Boelter’s wife a divorce.
