The man already serving a life sentence for a deadly June 2025 firebomb attack on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado, appeared in federal court on Thursday to plead guilty to a dozen federal counts, including hate crime charges.
Mohamed Soliman changed his plea before a judge at the Arraj Courthouse during a hearing that began at 10 a.m. The court found Soliman competent to enter guilty pleas across all 12 counts, reversing his previous not-guilty plea entered on June 27, 2025.
The federal charges encompass 1 count of hate crime resulting in the death of Karen Diamond, 7 counts of violating hate crime statutes involving bodily injury and intent to kill by willfully causing bodily injury, 1 count of hate crime involving an attempt to cause bodily injury and an attempt to kill using an explosive or incendiary device, 2 counts of using fire or an explosive to commit a felony, and 1 count of carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony.
The attack occurred during a summer demonstration organized by the group Run for Their Lives, which had been marching through downtown Boulder every Sunday for more than a year. The weekly marches moved along the Pearl Street Mall and concluded at the historic Boulder County Courthouse. According to prosecutors, Soliman threw two Molotov cocktails at the gathering in support of Israeli captives held by Hamas, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others.
“Here is why the federal case is important in addition to the state case: The federal case holds Mohamed Soliman responsible for the hateful ideology that drove his violent acts in June 2025 in Boulder, Colorado. He has pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes, which accounts for the fact that he was motivated by the fact that he thought these people were Jewish and Israeli, and that is why he did violence that day,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Peter McNeilly.
Soliman previously pleaded guilty to more than 100 state criminal charges in May, receiving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder alongside an additional 2,128 years in prison for the remaining state convictions.
Following Thursday’s change of plea, sentencing has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2027. The presiding judge indicated that a final decision on the sentence has not yet been made and noted that sentencing guidelines are advisory rather than mandatory. Meanwhile, Colorado Governor Jared Polis is requesting a sentence of life in prison plus 50 years.
