The man charged with setting fire to the mansion of Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor during Passover was sentenced to decades in prison after pleading guilty on Tuesday.
Cody A. Ballmer, 38, reached a plea deal, the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office said. He agreed to a sentence of 25 to 50 years in state prison in exchange for pleading guilty to attempted murder, aggravated arson, 22 counts of arson, burglary and other charges.
The incident was widely condemned as antisemitic.
Police accused Ballmer of breaking into Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion on April 13, the second day of Passover, and setting it on fire. Security footage showed what prosecutors said was Ballmer scaling the property’s fence, breaking a window with a sledgehammer and throwing a Molotov cocktail inside before breaking a second window and entering the home.
Shapiro had held a seder at his home before the attack, and his family and guests were sleeping in the mansion at the time. Footage shows Ballmer striking two doors, including one that would have led to the occupants, but he was unable to break through.
Ballmer threw a second Molotov cocktail in the dining area before fleeing, igniting another fire. Prosecutors said the mansion sustained “substantial damage.”
Shapiro, his wife, three of their children, 15 guests and two Pennsylvania State Police troopers were all inside the mansion at the time. Everyone was evacuated safely, and no one was injured.
Ballmer was arrested 12 hours after the attack and told police he was upset by Shapiro’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
“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 at a Tuesday press conference, adding that he has “struggled over the last six months to try and make sense of all of this.”
Ballmer told police he would have beaten Shapiro with his hammer had he been able to reach him.
Shapiro said Tuesday that he “carried with me this enormous sense of guilt” for “doing this job that I love so much” that has “put our children’s lives at risk.”
Shapiro is considered a contender for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028. He was on Kamala Harris’s shortlist for vice presidential running mate last year, with some critics accusing Harris of rejecting Shapiro due to progressive backlash over his Jewish heritage.
