Minnesota Shooting Suspect Boelter Expected Plead Not Guilty

Vance Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, is charged with the June 14 shootings that killed Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounded state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Boelter faces six counts including murder, stalking, and firearms violations, with the murder charges potentially carrying the federal death penalty, though prosecutors have yet to make that decision. He is expected to plead not guilty at his federal arraignment, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster will also hold a case management conference and may set a trial date. Prosecutors have designated this a complex case due to the extensive investigation, which involved the largest manhunt in Minnesota's history and includes thousands of hours of video footage and tens of thousands of pages of evidence from multiple law enforcement agencies. Boelter wrote a rambling handwritten letter to FBI Director Kash Patel confessing to the shootings, though his motives remain unclear, with friends describing him as an evangelical Christian with conservative views who had been struggling to find work. His federal defender has not commented on defense strategies, and the case will require significant time for both sides to review the voluminous evidence.