Man pleads guilty to arson attack at Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro's home, gets 25 to 50 years
The man who firebombed the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro pleaded guilty on Tuesday as prosecutors released new surveillance video of the attack that the governor described as "chilling."
Cody Balmer pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated arson, arson and the attempted murder of Shapiro, and was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison, the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office said.
In April, Balmer climbed a fence at the governor's mansion in Harrisburg, broke a window and hurled a Molotov cocktail inside, prosecutors said.
Video showed Balmer walking through the house, hitting at doors, "including a door leading to where the Governor’s family and guests slept, but could not break through," prosecutors said in a statement.
Balmer then ignited a second Molotov cocktail in the dining area, prosecutors said, and the fire it sparked was caught on surveillance video. Balmer then fled the scene, prosecutors said.
The "chilling" surveillance videos that prosecutors publicly released on Tuesday "have been haunting me for months," Shapiro told reporters on Tuesday.
The attack occurred in the middle of the night, hours after the Shapiro family hosted more than two dozen people for the first night of Passover. At the time of the attack, the governor, his wife and three of their children were in the house, as well as 15 of their guests and two Pennsylvania State Police troopers, prosecutors said.
"It's hard for me to stand before you today and utter the words 'attempted murder; when it's your own life -- to know that someone tried to kill me," Shapiro said. "It's especially hard to know that he tried to burn our family to death while we slept."
"The hardest part has been trying to explain it to our four children and to our nieces and nephews," he said. "I've carried with me this enormous sense of guilt -- guilt that doing this job that I love so much has put our children's lives at risk. It's been really hard.”
"We are working through this," Shapiro said. "This is an ongoing thing that we are dealing with. ... I think we're confident that it'll get better. But we also know it's going to always be with us."
After the attack, Balmer called 911, identified himself and confessed, allegedly telling the dispatcher that Shapiro "needs to know that he 'will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.'"
Balmer allegedly told police he would have attacked Shapiro with a hammer if he happened upon the governor inside the residence, according to court documents.
Balmer, who was arrested at 38 years old, will first be eligible for parole when he is 63, prosecutors said.
"This is a just outcome," Shapiro said of Balmer's sentence, and he called it "closure of this chapter."
The governor also expressed his appreciation for the first responders who came to the scene and the dedicated staff at the mansion.
