ST. PAUL — U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko granted a request from Vance Boelter’s defense for his preliminary and detention hearing on Friday, June 27, to be moved to July 3, over concerns for his living conditions.
Boelter, suspect in the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses, is currently being held in Sherburne County Jail. He made his second court appearance on Friday, in a green anti-suicide smock, during which he told the judge he hadn’t slept in “12 to 14 days.”
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Boelter’s lawyer, federal defender Manny Atwal, said Friday it’s “difficult to communicate with him in person because he is sleep deprived,” and that Boelter has been in “that contraption,” referring to his suicide smock, since his arrest on June 15.
Atwal said that at the Sherburne County jail, he’s being held in a cell with his lights on 24/7, a mat with no pillow for sleeping, and an inmate next to him who has smeared feces on the cell.
Boelter briefly took the microphone in court and said he appreciates the request since he hasn’t slept, and said, “I've never been suicidal and I'm not suicidal now.”
Assistant U.S. attorney Harry Jacobs did not object to the request from Boelter’s defense and said that “the government has serious concerns about Mr. Boelter and a potential suicide.”
Sherburne County Sheriff Joel Brott on Friday afternoon rebuked Boelter’s description of the jail conditions. He called the complaints “offensive and disgusting” on the day that hundreds gathered at the Minnesota Capitol to pay their respects to Rep. Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their dog Gilbert.
“Claims made in court that deplorable jail conditions have prevented the alleged assassin from getting any sleep, and therefore require a continuance in the criminal case against him, are absurd,” Brott said in a news release. “Security cameras capturing the activity of the alleged assassin in his cell on ‘suicide precaution’ show he was resting peacefully with his eyes closed for seven straight hours, appearing to be asleep, from approximately 10:40 p.m. Thursday until 5:45 a.m. Friday.”
Brott described Boelter’s cell as “spotless clean,” and said that Boelter has a mattress with a pillow, and is offered a phone and shower daily. The sheriff said Boelter has not missed any meals at the jail.
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“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 said. “... He’s being treated like every other inmate in the same circumstance. It’s too late now to complain about the conditions in which he has put himself.”
Boelter faces both state and federal charges for the murder of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well as the shootings of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who are in recovery. Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thomson said on June 16 that the federal charges will be prosecuted first. If convicted, the federal charges carry a maximum punishment of life in prison or the death penalty.
The FBI special agent on Boelter's case, Terry Getsch, has already released his affidavit in support of the federal charges, which detail evidence against Boelter, such as recovered lists of other Minnesota politicians, weapons and an alleged confession letter.
Boelter’s preliminary and detention hearing will now be on Thursday, July 3, at 2:30 p.m. at the U.S. Courthouse in St. Paul.
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