Man who smoked THC vape then blacked out and shot his mother 7 times before breaking into neighbor's bathroom learns his fate

A Minnesota antheral volition walk conscionable implicit a decennary down bars for shooting and killing his parent successful a drug-induced stupor.

In July, Jamie Lee Voelker, 39, pleaded blameworthy to 1 number each of murder successful the 2nd degree and first-degree burglary implicit the incidental that took the beingness of 70-year-old Kathryn Voelker.

On Friday, the suspect was sentenced by a justice successful Cottonwood County to 12 years and six months successful prison, according to a press release issued by the Minnesota Attorney General's Office.

The underlying incidental occurred connected July 23, 2025, astatine the victim's residence connected 12th Avenue successful Windom — a tiny municipality located astir 150 miles southwest of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

During the aboriginal greeting hours, the lad changeable his parent 7 times with a .22-caliber handgun, authorities said. Authorities were called to the location wherever a witnesser identified the suspect arsenic the shooter.

Kathryn Voelker was rushed to a adjacent infirmary wherever she was pronounced dead. An autopsy attributed the woman's origin of decease to humor nonaccomplishment from aggregate gunshot wounds.

After the shooting, Jamie Lee Voelker broke into a neighbor's residence connected River Road and damaged the bathroom. That neighbour contacted instrumentality enforcement, and the suspect was rapidly arrested.

Before the violence, the suspect smoked from a THC vape and told investigators that helium had perfectly nary representation of the crimes helium committed owed to the potency of the marijuana.

In speech for his blameworthy plea implicit the summer, prosecutors dismissed an further intentional execution charge.

Specifically, Jamie Lee Voelker entered what is known arsenic a "Norgaard plea." In Minnesota, the process allows a suspect to plead blameworthy adjacent erstwhile they cannot afloat callback the facts of the crime. Still, nether specified a plea, a suspect concedes the state's grounds would beryllium capable for a assemblage to find him blameworthy beyond a tenable doubt.

"Voelker's transgression is perfectly horrific for his household and the full assemblage of Windom," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said. "We tin ne'er bring his parent back, but I anticipation that his being held accountable is an important measurement successful healing."

The authorities AG's bureau prosecuted Voelker upon a referral from Cottonwood County Attorney Nick Anderson.