Luigi Mangione was indicted Thursday on a federal homicide cost within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a required step as prosecutors work to make good on the Trump administration’s order to hunt the demise penalty for what it referred to as a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
Mangione’s indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, features a cost of homicide by way of use of a firearm, which carries the potential for the demise penalty. The indictment, which mirrors a legal grievance introduced after Mangione’s arrest final December, additionally fees him with stalking and a gun offence.
His attorneys have argued that U.S. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi’s announcement this month ordering prosecutors to hunt the demise penalty was a “political stunt” that corrupted the grand jury course of and disadvantaged him of his constitutional proper to due course of.
The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a distinguished Maryland actual property household faces separate federal and state homicide fees after authorities say he gunned down Thompson, 50, exterior a Manhattan lodge on Dec. 4 as the chief arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor convention.
Surveillance video confirmed a masked gunman taking pictures Thompson from behind. Police say the phrases “delay,” “deny” and “depose” had been scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase generally used to explain how insurers keep away from paying claims.
The killing and ensuing five-day search resulting in Mangione’s arrest rattled the enterprise neighborhood, with some well being insurers deleting images of executives from their web pages and switching to on-line shareholder conferences. On the similar time, some medical insurance critics have rallied round Mangione as a stand-in for frustrations over protection denials and hefty medical payments.
Quick-approaching deadline
Mangione’s federal indictment got here simply earlier than a deadline Friday for prosecutors to both file one or search a delay. It was not instantly clear when he can be dropped at federal courtroom in Manhattan for an arraignment.
A crowd of individuals, many supporters, flocked to a New York Metropolis courthouse, the place Luigi Mangione pleaded not responsible to fees of first-degree homicide and terrorism within the demise of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A message in search of remark was left for a spokesperson for Mangione’s defence group.
Bondi introduced April 1 that she was directing federal prosecutors in Manhattan to hunt the demise penalty towards Mangione. It was the primary time the Justice Division stated it was pursuing capital punishment since President Donald Trump returned to workplace Jan. 20 with a vow to renew federal executions after they had been halted below the earlier administration.
In her announcement, Bondi described Thompson’s killing as “an act of political violence.”
Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, countered in a subsequent courtroom submitting that “the USA authorities intends to kill Mr. Mangione as a political stunt.” She desires prosecutors blocked from in search of the demise penalty.
Friedman Agnifilo and her co-counsel argued that Bondi’s announcement — which was adopted by posts to her Instagram account and a tv look — violated long-established Justice Division protocols and “indelibly prejudiced” the grand jury course of that finally led to his indictment.
Mangione stays locked up at a federal jail in Brooklyn. His state fees carry a most punishment of life in jail.
Prosecutors have stated the 2 instances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state case anticipated to go to trial first.
It wasn’t instantly clear if Mangione’s indictment Thursday will change the order.
Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 in Altoona, Penn., about 370 kilometres west of New York Metropolis and whisked to Manhattan by airplane and helicopter.
Police stated Mangione had a handgun that matched the one used within the taking pictures and different gadgets together with a pocket book through which they are saying he expressed hostility towards the medical insurance business and rich executives.
Among the many entries, prosecutors stated, was one from August 2024 that stated “the goal is insurance coverage” as a result of “it checks each field” and one from October that describes an intent to “wack” an insurance coverage firm CEO. UnitedHealthcare, the most important U.S. well being insurer, has stated Mangione was by no means a shopper.
Friedman Agnifilo has stated she would search to suppress a few of the proof.
