Boulder firebombing defendant pleads guilty to state charges including first-degree murder

The Boulder firebombing attack defendant pleaded guilty to state charges, including first-degree murder, in court on Thursday morning. Mohamed Soliman admitted to attacking a group on the Pearl Street Mall in June 2025 during a demonstration in support of Israeli captives held by Hamas. According to prosecutors, Soliman threw two Molotov cocktails at the group, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others.

Soliman had been charged with more than 100 state criminal charges in connection with the deadly attack. Based on Thursday's guilty plea, the Boulder County District Court was required to impose a prison sentence of life without parole and at least 400 years. The sentencing would be immediate, as both the prosecution and the defence had previously agreed. 

Soliman heard the charges against him and answered the charges with guilty pleas through an Arabic interpreter in the courtroom. Judge Nancy Salomone read each charge against Soliman, including the victims' names associated with each count, in the courtroom. 

Those charges include murder in the first degree for the death of Karen Diamond, who died nearly a month after the attack. Other charges include attempt to commit murder in the first degree, attempt to commit assault in the first degree and charges related to undetonated incendiary devices, as well as cruelty to animals. 

Karen Diamond's family asked that Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty read a statement during the sentencing phase with victims' impact statements because Diamond's family said they could not face the emotional toll associated with seeing their mother's murderer in court. 

"Our only request is that the attacker never see his family again since he is responsible for us never seeing our mother again," read Dougherty in court. The letter went on to describe the suffering that Karen Diamond had to endure while undergoing treatment for burns covering much of her body in the weeks leading up to her death, which her family described as "a living hell."

Andrew Chester, who was part of the group the day of the attack, addressed the court, saying, "This was meant to be a peaceful gathering on June 1. One of remembrance and mourning, reflection and humanity. On that day, the regular weekly hate directed towards us, changed from some screams and middle fingers to terror and real violence. This was a deliberate act, targeted and rooted in hatred. An act that could have easily resulted in many more of us in this room that were there that day, not being here today."

Several other people who were impacted by the attack also either spoke at the sentencing hearing or provided statements that were read by Dougherty.

Soliman spoke during the sentencing hearing, saying through an interpreter that he "takes full responsibility" for what he's done before he asked the judge for the maximum penalty. He also gave "deepest condolences" to Karen Diamond's family. 

The judge handed down a life in prison without the possibility of parole sentence for the first-degree murder conviction, in addition to several hundred years for the other charges. 

Soliman also faces 12 federal hate crime charges. That trial has been scheduled to begin on June 1 at the U.S. District Court in downtown Denver.

After last summer's attack, Soliman's now ex-wife, Hayam El-Gamal, and their five children were questioned by law enforcement and then taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, where they were detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, for more than 10 months. In a hearing ordered by a federal judge, an FBI agent testified in court that he believed the family did not know about Soliman's plans.

The family immigrated from Egypt and applied for asylum after their visas expired. They were living in Colorado Springs at the time of the attack.  

Last month, a judge issued an order to federal immigration officials to immediately release Soliman's ex-wife, Hayam El Gamal, as well as 18-year-old Habiba Soliman and the 4 minor children. They were released from the ICE facility in Dilley, Texas, on April 23 and taken back into custody just days after their release. A stay of removal was issued on April 25, when ICE attempted to deport El Gamal and her children.

On May 1, attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security asked the federal court in Denver to dissolve the stay of removal of Soliman's ex-wife and five children from Colorado. The government argues that the family's case belongs not in Colorado, but rather with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, given the family's detention in Texas, and the pending claims before that court.  

The El Gamal family's attorneys filed new motions on May 4, including a motion for a temporary restraining order prohibiting the re-detention and removal of the five children and their mother. The filing argues that the government must start a new removal case against the family, as it effectively removed them and then paroled them when it attempted to fly the family out of the country on April 25. The motion further argued that the family would face a "severe persecution risk in Egypt" if they were to be sent there.

According to Soliman's lawyers, the family can't be removed because they're witnesses in his case for the federal charges.

The Anti-Defamation League released this statement on Thursday after the guilty pleas: We welcome today's guilty plea by the man responsible for taking the life of Karen Diamond and injuring 28 others in one of the most shocking antisemitic acts in American history. This attack deeply traumatized the entire Jewish community and served as a reminder of what can happen when antisemitism is normalized in society. 

No act of justice will bring back the life of Ms. Diamond, nor will it heal the wounds of those who suffered as a result of this horrific attack on a peaceful group of Americans.  

We are deeply grateful for the work of law enforcement and District Attorney Michael Dougherty and his staff for pursuing justice in this case. 

This firebombing was not a random act. The perpetrator planned this attack for over a year, targeting Jewish community members who were peacefully and publicly expressing their values. This demands a serious response, but the resolution of the state charges is just the beginning of the long road to justice for the victims. As ADL's latest data reveals, 2025 was the most violent year on record for American Jews since we started tracking this data in the 1970s, and last year saw the murder of three people in antisemitic attacks, including in Boulder. We are grateful to Gov. Polis for his partnership in securing additional Non-Profit Security Grant funding to help keep our communities safe, and we are working with individuals, families, schools and elected officials to confront antisemitism every single day.