Chris Boyette

News Desk Reporter, CNN

Chris Boyette writes and reports for CNN’s National News Hub.
Read Full Bio
Chris Boyette 1

Latest

Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman addresses the house floor after being re-elected for her third term during the first day of the 2023 legislative session on Jan. 3, 2023, in St. Paul, Minn. Minnesota House Democrats have rolled out their main tax bill of the session, saying it contains nearly $3 billion in breaks that would add up to the largest tax cut in state history. Hortman told reporters Monday, April 17, that their bill would make the tax system fairer while funding priorities that Minnesotans value most.
Abbie Parr/AP/FILE
A ‘formidable public servant.’ Who was Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota state representative assassinated in her home?
Jun 15, 2025
A dedicated volunteer who taught Sunday school and loved dogs. A lawyer who served as a Girl Scout Leader and worked at her dad’s auto parts store. A mother and wife whose husband was killed alongside her. Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman was more than just the state House’s top Democrat, according to those that knew her.
Elizabeth Mendoza, a restaurant owner who helped both protesters and police during the June 7 protests in Los Angeles, stands in front of her restaurant.
Courtesy Elizabeth Mendoza
A protest over immigration broke out next to a Compton restaurant. The owner, an immigrant, offered help to both protesters and cops
Jun 14, 2025
Elizabeth Mendoza watched nervously as demonstrators protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration raids and policies clashed with police outside of her Compton restaurant, Restaurante Y Pupuseria La Ceiba.
Escaped inmate Grant Hardin has been recaptured and was taken into custody shortly after 3 p.m. on Friday, June 6, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections
Arkansas Department of Corrections
Former Arkansas police chief who escaped from prison has been recaptured, sheriff’s office says
Jun 7, 2025
Grant Hardin, the one-time Arkansas police chief who escaped from prison where he was serving sentences for murder and rape, has been recaptured, according to the Izard County Sheriff’s Office.
still_21669883_15999.796999999999_still.jpg
KMGH
Suspect in Boulder antisemitic attack is charged with a federal hate crime. Here’s what we know
Jun 3, 2025
A man yelling “Free Palestine!” used incendiary devices and a makeshift flamethrower to attack people calling for the release of Israeli hostages Sunday in Colorado, in what authorities are calling a targeted antisemitic attack.
Left to right: Antoine Massey, Derrick Groves, and Grant Hardin
Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office/Arkansas Department of Corrections Communications Department via AP
2 jailbreaks. 3 men still on the run. What we know about the circumstances of each escape
Jun 2, 2025
A police chief-turned-murderer-and-rapist, a repeat escapee and a double murderer are still nowhere to be found after two high-profile jailbreaks keep communities on edge and law enforcement on alert.
Water from Blanchard springs exiting the caverns
ArtyAlison/iStockphoto/Getty Images
How Northern Arkansas’ terrain may help an escaped convict evade capture
May 30, 2025
As the search for escaped prisoner Grant Hardin enters a fifth day, authorities pursuing the convicted murderer and rapist in northern Arkansas face various challenges from the landscape that could give Hardin an advantage in eluding capture.
A surveillance image shows Grant Hardin escaping from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, Arkansas.
Stone County, Arkansas Sheriff's Office
A former police chief was in prison for murder and rape. His escape has left a small town on edge and reopened old wounds
May 29, 2025
The prison escape of a former Arkansas police officer convicted of murder and rape has left a small town on edge and reopened old wounds.
A surveillance image appears to show Grant Hardin escaping from the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock, Arkansas.
Stone County, Arkansas Sheriff's Office
A former police chief serving time for murder and rape escaped from an Arkansas prison. Here is what we know
May 28, 2025
A former small-town police chief in Arkansas escaped from prison Sunday while serving decades-long sentences for murder and rape and is still on the loose, officials said Wednesday.
The Cuauhtémoc, a Mexican Navy training ship is seen after it hit New York's Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday.
Angela Weiss/AFPTV/Getty Images
A Mexican Navy training ship struck the Brooklyn Bridge, killing at least 2. Here’s what we know
May 18, 2025
At least two people were killed and about 20 injured when a Mexican Navy training ship on a global goodwill tour struck the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York Saturday night, officials said.
This 2016 photo shows Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Lee Matz/Milwaukee Independent/AP/File
Wisconsin judge pleads not guilty to helping a man evade immigration agents
May 15, 2025
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan entered a not guilty plea Thursday to federal charges that she helped a man who is in the country illegally evade U.S. immigration agents who were trying to detain him at her courthouse.
FILE PHOTO: A view of the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi/File Photo
Faith Ninivaggi/Reuters/File
Harvard says it has ‘common ground’ with Trump administration, but is ‘undermined’ by government overreach
May 12, 2025
While Harvard and the Trump Administration share “common ground” on issues such as ending antisemitism and other bigotry on campus and encouraging a “multiplicity of viewpoints” at the Ivy League school, the “overreach” of the federal government has hindered those objectives, Alan Garber, the university’s president, said Monday in a letter to US Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
Hamilton County Municipal Judge Tyrone Yates has ordered Rodney Hinton Jr. to be held without bond while he awaits trial in the May 2 killing of a Hamilton County sheriff's deputy.
Phil Didion/The Enquirer/USA Today Network/Imagn Images
Rodney Hinton Jr., whose son was shot dead by police, denied bond in killing of sheriff’s deputy after disturbance in court
May 6, 2025
Rodney Hinton Jr., who authorities say intentionally hit and killed an Ohio sheriff’s deputy with a car after his son was fatally shot by police, will remain in jail without bond while he awaits trial on a murder charge.
Mahendra Patel, 57, appears for his bond hearing at Cobb County Superior Court in Marietta, Ga., on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Patel, who was accused of trying to kidnap a child at a Walmart in March, was in the Cobb jail for more than 40 days without bond. The judge granted him $10,000 bond. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP
A man spent 45 days in jail, accused of trying to abduct a child at Walmart. A judge granted a bond after lawyer shows video
May 6, 2025
Mahendra Patel, who is facing attempted kidnapping and other charges after a mother accused him of trying to grab her 2-year-old son from her at a Georgia Walmart has been granted a $10,000 bond after being held in a Cobb County jail for 45 days.
The FAA Air Traffic Control tower at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, in March 2024.
Angus Mordant/Bloomberg/Getty Images
What we know about the massive staffing shortage that has caused 7 days of major delays at Newark Airport
May 5, 2025
The shortage of certified air traffic controllers in the US has led to flight disruptions and headaches for travelers across the country, most recently at busy Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where staffing issues have led to major delays for an unparalleled seventh day in a row.
Mahendra Patel
Courtesy Patel family
He’s been in jail for 43 days, accused of trying to abduct a kid at Walmart. His lawyer argues video shows he’s innocent
May 4, 2025
Mahendra Patel was looking for Tylenol in a Georgia Walmart two months ago when he encountered a woman with two children – riding a motorized cart she was driving – and asked her for help to find the medication, his lawyer says.
DEA Rocky Mountain shared more videos on social media of an overnight raid at an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on April 27, 2025.
DEA Rocky Mountain
More than 100 migrants were detained during a raid on a Colorado nightclub. Here’s what we know
Apr 28, 2025
US federal agents early Sunday raided what authorities described as an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs and took into custody more than 100 migrants accused of being in the country illegally, the US Drug Enforcement Administration said.

About

Chris Boyette writes and reports for CNN’s National News Hub. Chris Boyette covers news across the US, providing valuable, interesting and necessary information for CNN audiences around the world.

He reports, researches, writes, and updates all kinds of news stories– from initial breaking news briefs to fully formed features– in various mediums across all CNN platforms. As a journalist, Boyette is most interested in new and evolving ways to gather and share stories.

Boyette began with CNN in the New York Bureau and travelled the country covering major news stories such as the Boston Marathon Bombing, the prosecution of Baltimore Police officers involved in the death of Freddie Grey, Superstorm Sandy and the #MeToo movement.

After moving to the CNN National Desk in Atlanta, Boyette was involved in covering the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the Covid-19 pandemic and the death of George Floyd, for which the network won a News & Documentary Emmy Award for outstanding breaking news coverage.

Boyette is a graduate of LMU Loyola Law School’s Journalist Law School in Los Angeles, and remans intrigued by places where law, technology, culture and society butt heads.

Lately, he has focused much reporting on the dynamic immigration debate and polarizing policies in place, attempting to tell human stories alongside facts and figures.

Boyette is involved with the Atlanta Press Club and is an organizer for a local meetup for young fathers and their kids called simply “The Dad Club.”