Man charged with killing former Minnesota House speaker is due back in court after delay

ST PAUL Minn AP The man charged with killing former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and wounding a state senator and his wife is due back in federal court Thursday for a hearing that was put on hold after his lawyer revealed his client had been unable to sleep while on suicide watch The hearing is expected to address whether Vance Boelter should remain in custody without bail and affirm that there is probable cause to proceed with the episode He s not expected to enter a plea Prosecutors need to secure a grand jury indictment first before his arraignment which is when a plea is normally entered An unshaven Boelter of Green Isle was wearing a green padded suicide prevention suit and orange slippers when he was brought into court last Friday Federal defender Manny Atwal then requested Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko to continue the hearing She mentioned Boelter had been sleep deprived due to harsh conditions in the Sherburne County Jail making it complex for them to communicate Your honor I haven t really slept in about to days Boelter stated the judge then And he denied being suicidal I ve never been suicidal and I am not suicidal now Sherburne County Sheriff Joel Brott whose jail houses both county and federal prisoners rejected Boelter s suggests of poor conditions as absurd He is not in a hotel He s in jail where a person belongs when they commit the heinous crimes he is accused of committing Brott revealed in a comment Friday Boelter faces separate cases in federal and state court on charges of murder and attempted murder for what the state s chief federal prosecutor Acting U S Attorney Joe Thompson has called a political assassination and a chilling attack on our democracy The feds are going first Officials say Hortman and her husband Mark were shot to death in their home in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park in the early hours of June by a man disguised as a police officer who was driving a fake squad car Boelter also allegedly shot and seriously wounded state Sen John Hoffman and his wife Yvette earlier that morning at their home in nearby Champlin The Hoffmans are recovering but Hortman s golden retriever Gilbert was seriously injured and had to be euthanized Boelter surrendered near his home the night of June after what functionaries called the largest search in Minnesota history a hunt of around hours Atwal described the court last week that Boelter had been kept in what s known as a Gumby suit without undergarments ever since his first court appearance June She revealed the lights were on in his area hours a day doors slammed frequently the inmate in the next cell would spread feces on the walls and the smell would drift to Boelter s cell The attorney mentioned transferring him to segregation instead and giving him a normal jail uniform would let him get various sleep restore a few dignity and let him communicate better The judge granted the delay Boelter s lawyers have declined to comment on the charges themselves which could carry the federal death penalty Thompson has announced no decision has been made whether to seek it Minnesota abolished its death penalty in But Attorney General Pam Bondi has revealed from the start that the Trump administration will be more aggressive in seeking capital punishment Prosecutors allege Boelter also stopped at the homes of two other Democratic lawmakers They also say he listed dozens of other Democrats as foreseen targets including personnel in other states Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views But prosecutors have declined so far to speculate on a motive Former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris joined the mourners at the Hortmans funeral last Saturday Gov Tim Walz Harris s running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket eulogized Hortman as the largest part consequential speaker in Minnesota history Hortman served as speaker from until January She then yielded the post to a Republican in a power-sharing deal after the House became tied in the elections and became speaker emerita Source