Suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione pleads not guilty to NY state murder and terrorism charges

Molly Crane-Newman and John Annese, New York Daily News on Dec 23, 2024

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NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and terror offenses in Manhattan Supreme Court Monday stemming from the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Wearing a burgundy sweater, white collared shirt, and khaki pants, a handcuffed Mangione, 26, entered his first formal plea to charges linked to the high-profile hit before state Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro.

He pleaded not guilty to all allegations in the 11-count indictment brought last week by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office — first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, second-degree murder as a crime of terrorism, an additional count of murder and eight other counts.

If convicted of the top counts, he faces a potential sentence of life without parole.

Following his Thursday extradition to New York from Pennsylvania — where he was arrested at a McDonald’s on Dec. 9 after a nationwide five-day manhunt —Mangione was taken into federal authorities’ custody and charged with murder with the use of a firearm, stalking, and a firearm offense.

The maximum potential sentence in Mangione’s federal case is the death penalty, though it’s not clear prosecutors would pursue that punishment. State and federal authorities have said the cases will proceed in parallel.

Mangione’s attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo slammed the authorities’ handling of his case at Monday’s hearing and the dramatic show put on when he was transferred back to New York, which she called “the biggest staged perp walk in my career.”

Mangione was flown from Pennsylvania to Long Island and then transported to lower Manhattan via helicopter. In what is typically a covert arrangement hidden from the public, dozens of armed law enforcement agents awaited his arrival at the Wall Street heliport, along with Mayor Adams and throngs of photographers tipped off by the cops.

“He’s a young man and he is being treated [like] a human ping pong ball between two warring jurisdictions here … They have conflicting theories in their indictments, and they are literally treating him like he is some sort of political fodder,” Friedman Agnifilo said of the state and federal cases.

“What was the New York City mayor doing at this press conference, your honor? That just makes it utterly political,” she continued.

“Frankly, your honor, the mayor should know more than anyone of the presumption of innocence that he too was afforded.”

Mangione was detained on the eighth floor of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after appearing in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday. Carro said he would wait to order his transfer to state custody but told the DA’s office to work it out with the feds.

The Ivy League computer science graduate who comes from a prominent family in Towson, Md., is accused of fatally shooting Thompson in the back and leg on Dec. 4 as the health care executive arrived at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown for an annual investor conference.

When he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., on Dec. 9, police took him into custody and recovered on his person a 3D-printed ghost gun, silencer, and ammunition matching that which was recovered at the scene, according to state and federal authorities.

He was also in possession of fake IDs and writings critical of the health care industry, according to court docs, and sketched-out plans documented months before the killing to “wack” a CEO at the conference.

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