{"id":1044,"date":"2025-10-15T06:55:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T06:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/1044\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T06:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T06:55:23","slug":"cody-balmer-sentenced-for-torching-pennsylvania-gov-josh-shapiros-mansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/1044\/","title":{"rendered":"Cody Balmer sentenced for torching Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0sicko\u00a0who admitted to\u00a0torching Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s official residence\u00a0<\/a>in April was sentenced to 25 to 50 years\u00a0behind bars\u00a0after pleading guilty to the\u00a0attack Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Cody Balmer, 38,\u00a0copped\u00a0to 22 counts of arson, attempted murder, terrorism\u00a0and other charges over the April 13 attempt to burn down Shapiro\u2019s Harrisburg residence\u00a0in the dead of night while 17 people \u2014 including children \u2014 were inside.<\/p>\n

The attack took place on the second day of Passover. Shapiro and his family had performed the Seder the night before and were in the home \u2014 along with overnight guests and two state troopers on protective detail \u2014 when it was set on fire.<\/p>\n

Cody Balmer admitted to setting a fire at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s official residence. AP<\/p>\n

Surveillance footage of Balmer setting the fire inside the Pennsylvania governor\u2019s mansion. AP<\/p>\n

Balmer caused millions of dollars worth of damage in the residence. Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office via AP<\/p>\n

Balmer pleaded guilty to 22 counts of arson, attempted murder, terrorism\u00a0and other charges. AP<\/p>\n

All the occupants were evacuated safely.<\/p>\n

The attack caused millions of dollars in damage to the residence, which was built in 1968 and was not equipped with sprinklers.<\/p>\n

Balmer later admitted to police that he had intended to attack Shapiro with a mini-sledgehammer\u00a0if he had come across the Democratic governor.<\/p>\n

The firebug also told investigators that\u00a0\u201che was concerned about the war in Gaza and\u00a0the potential for many millions dying \u2014 his words,\u201d according to\u00a0Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo.\u00a0\u201cAnd he said, you know, even if I just have to take a life, I\u2019m not crazy about having to take a life, but I will if it\u2019s because of the millions endangered. So he viewed this as an offset to the the war in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Balmer\u2019s family claimed he had suffered manic episodes after he stopped taking medication for mental health issues and the suspect\u2019s mother said she had tried to get him assistance but \u201cnobody would help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balmer himself denied a bigoted motive to the blaze, telling the Associated Press in a May letter the governor \u201ccan be Jewish, Muslim, or a purple people eater for all I care and as long as he leaves me and mine alone.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cody Balmer is escorted by police officers to Dauphin County District Court on Monday, April 14, 2025. James Keivom<\/p>\n

Damage in the mansion after the fire. AP<\/p>\n

The outside of the mansion. James Keivom<\/p>\n

The arsonist did not elaborate on his grievances with Shapiro.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to stand before you today and utter the words, attempted murder, and it\u2019s your own life, to know that someone tried to kill me,\u201d Shapiro told reporters after Balmer\u2019s sentencing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s especially hard to know that he tried to burn our family to death while we slept,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019ve carried with me this enormous sense of guilt. Guilt that doing this job that I love so much has put our children\u2019s lives at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Security footage showed Balmer climbing an iron fence in the dead of night, slipping past police guards, smashing a window in the southern wing of the home and setting off what prosecutors described as homemade Molotov cocktails inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Balmer admitted that he had intended to attack Shapiro with a mini-sledgehammer\u00a0if he had come across him. AP<\/p>\n

The fire charred walls, tables, buffet serving dishes, plates and a piano. Window panes and brick around doors and windows were also damaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that in this time of rising political violence that none of us grow numb to it or accept this as the normal course of doing business for elected officials,\u201d Shapiro stressed Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, this made it all real, and it brings with it a real sense of vulnerability that our family feels every single day. I want you to know we are working through this,\u201d he continued. \u201cThis is an ongoing thing that we are dealing with and we are working through.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0sicko\u00a0who admitted to\u00a0torching Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s official residence\u00a0in April was sentenced to 25 to 50 years\u00a0behind bars\u00a0after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36,33,28,30,29,302],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-arson","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}