A man who shot and killed Minnesota state Sen. Melissa Hortman and her husband last year will spend his life in prison after a judge sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years on July 23.
“The defendant looked me in the eyes and pulled the trigger,” Hoffman told the court at the sentencing hearing. “The defendant looked at my wife and chose to do the same. My wife and I now live with injuries. We live with our bodies remembering the gunfire.”
In Thursday’s court appearance, the killer briefly expressed remorse for the horror he’d inflicted. “To every person I have caused loss, pain, heartache, confusion, sadness, shame, or loneliness, I am truly sorry,” Boelter said during the hearing.
Boelter had intended to target other Minnesota lawmakers; he went to the home of Democratic state Rep. Kristin Bahner, but she was on vacation with her family at the time.
Authorities said he wore a silicone mask and drove a vehicle with a “POLICE” license plate.
He first stopped at the Hoffmans’ home in Champlin, a suburb of Minneapolis. After he shot the couple a combined 17 times just after 2 a.m., their adult daughter called the police to report the attack.
Yvette Hoffman said she requires weekly therapy to deal with the trauma of the incident, and has been unable to return to work.
“I fought him, your Honor, with everything I had,” she said, describing the incident to the court.
“And I finally got him out of our home. I will never forget looking down and watching my blood slowly stream down that white washing machine as I felt myself sinking to the floor.”
The assailant then made his way to the Hortman home, killing them around 3:30 a.m. In addition to killing the couple, Boelter shot and wounded their dog, who subsequently had to be euthanized.
Colin Hortman, son of the slain couple, said the memory of the crime scene still causes panic attacks.
“My days are filled with gray, and the blood that was spilled is the last thing I see before I go to sleep and the first thing I see when I wake,” he said. “There is no sentence that weighs 15 gunshots, a murdered dog and the rest of my life.”
