Vance Boelter, the man accused in the shootings of two state lawmakers and their families last summer, is due in federal court Friday morning.
Boelter faces six federal charges connected to the June 14 shootings that killed Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and injured state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their homes. The indictment alleges he disguised himself as a police officer when he knocked on their doors in the middle of the night. After a manhunt that lasted more than 40 hours, he was arrested near his Green Isle home.
The hearing is the first proceeding without lead federal prosecutor Harry Jacobs, who is among several people who resigned from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota in mid-January. The office has since lost more than a dozen attorneys and staff over concerns of directives from the Justice Department under the Trump administration.
At Boelter’s last hearing in November, prosecutors said they had not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty in the case. Two of the charges carry the possibility of a death sentence if convicted. U.S. Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster asked the attorneys to provide an update on that decision at Friday’s hearing.
His federal defenders also asked for more time to review the abundance of photographic and video evidence in the case.
Friday’s hearing is set for 10 a.m.
