(Headline USA) The man accused of fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in New York City and leading authorities on a five-day search was in court Friday for the first time since his December arraignment on state murder and terror charges.
Luigi Mangione, 26, has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism, in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel. The executive was ambushed and shot on a sidewalk as he walked to an investor conference.
Mangione also faces federal charges that could carry the possibility of the death penalty. He is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside several other high-profile defendants, including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried.
Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state charges expected to go to trial first. The maximum sentence for the state charges is life in prison without parole. A Feb. 24 hearing in Pennsylvania on charges of possessing an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police was canceled.
In a statement posted on a website for his legal defense, Mangione said: “I am overwhelmed by — and grateful for — everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support. Powerfully, this support has transcended political, racial, and even class divisions.”
The killing prompted some to voice their resentment at U.S. health insurers, with Mangione attracting a cult following as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty medical bills. A poll taken in the wake of the shooting showed most Americans believe health insurance profits and coverage denials share blame.
A couple dozen members of the public were allowed into Friday’s hearing, including one wearing a “Free Luigi” scarf.
The killing also has sent shock waves through the corporate world, rattling executives who say they saw a spike in threats.
Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Dec. 9. Police said he was carrying a gun that matched the one used in the shooting and a fake ID. He also was carrying a notebook expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and especially wealthy executives, authorities said.
Thompson, a married father of two high-schoolers, had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021.
Defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo argued at his Dec. 23 arraignment that “warring jurisdictions” had turned Mangione into a “human Ping-Pong ball.”
She accused New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other government officials of tainting the jury pool by bringing Mangione back to Manhattan in a choreographed spectacle involving heavily armed officers escorting him up a pier from a heliport.
Friedman Agnifilo singled out Adams’s comment on a local TV station that he wanted to be there to look “him in the eye and say, ‘you carried out this terroristic act in my city.'”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
