- Luigi Mangione is in New York to face state and federal murder charges.
- His new federal indictment accuses him of stalking and then killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
- Manhattan prosecutors say the state charges will be pursued “in parallel with any federal case.”
Luigi Mangione appeared in federal court Thursday on new federal murder charges that could carry the death penalty or life in prison.
It was Mangione's first appearance in a Manhattan courtroom packed with press and federal officials on charges stemming from the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He is expected to be arraigned on federal murder charges Friday at a courthouse a block away.
Mangione's voice was calm but firm as he answered the judge's questions.
“Mr. Mangione, do you understand what you are accused of?” U.S. Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker asked at one point before entering her plea.
“Yes,” he replied.
Edward Y. Kim, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, has not yet said whether he will seek the death penalty or life in prison for the most serious count of the four-count charge – murder using a firearm.
A former federal prosecutor called the death penalty a “remote” possibility given Mangione's youth and the possibility that he may have suffered a nervous breakdown in the six months before the shooting.
“It is unusual in New York's federal courts for them to seek the death penalty, and I think it is probably even more unusual for jurors to want to approve it, even assuming that Mr. Mangione killed Mr. Thompson in the manner alleged by the government .” said Michael Bachner, now in private practice.
Luigi Mangione's lawyers, Karen Friedman Agnifilo and her husband Marc Agnifilo, declined to answer questions as they arrived at a federal courthouse packed with reporters on Thursday. Laura Italiano/Business Insider
The other three federal indictments against Mangione allege that he possessed and used an illegal firearm and traveled interstate between Georgia and New York to pursue and kill Thompson.
Mangione made an orderly, if tense, appearance in the cool, 26th-floor courtroom.
He was clean-shaven and his bushy eyebrows carefully groomed. Mangione sat with his shoulders hunched and stiff, wearing khakis and a navy quarter-zip sweater over a white collared button-down shirt.
His ankles were bound with thick chains under the table where he sat. He wore bright orange slip-on sneakers with no laces.
On either side of Mangione sat his lawyers, a husband and wife legal team Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo. Both are experienced criminal defense lawyers and former prosecutors. Her firm, Agnifilo Intrater, LLC, is also representing Sean “Diddy” Combs in his federal sex trafficking case, which is scheduled to be heard in May at the same Manhattan courthouse.
After Parker read him the charges, Mangione's demeanor relaxed. He repeatedly raised his left hand to stroke the hair on the back and side of his head.
He folded his arms and wore a skeptical expression, tongue sticking out between his lips, as his Friedman Agnifilo demanded clarity on how the various law enforcement agencies were coordinating and presenting evidence in the case.
Mangione's next court date was scheduled for Jan. 18. His lawyers did not seek bail, although Friedman told Agnifilo in court that she might do so at a later date.
Early Thursday, Mangione gave up his extradition fight in a Pennsylvania courtroom and was taken to New York on an NYPD plane and, after landing at a Long Island airport, by police helicopter to a helipad in Lower Manhattan.
His arrival at the federal courthouse was greeted by dozens of reporters and a few fans holding messages of support written on cardboard.
“Health before wealth,” one said.
Press and supporters of Luigi Mangione gather outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan, where he attended his first hearing in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Laura Italiano/BI
Mangione has yet to be charged in his first murder case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday.
He faces life in prison on this state charge, which accuses him of murdering Thompson as an act of terrorism – a first-degree felony, the highest state charge and penalty available.
In a press statement following Mangione's federal appearance, Kim said he expects the state case – which Bragg had announced just two days earlier – to go to trial first.
In court Thursday, Friedman Agnifilo called the dual prosecution “highly unusual” and said the charges between the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office appeared to contradict each other.
The district attorney's indictment accuses Mangione of killing Thompson in furtherance of “terrorism” affecting a “population of people,” she said. But the federal charges accuse Mangione of pursuing Thompson as an individual, she said.
Police and prosecutors say Mangione killed Thompson on Dec. 4 outside a midtown Manhattan hotel.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a five-day manhunt on local firearms charges and false identification charges. A grand jury in Manhattan later indicted him on charges related to the murder itself, and the New York cases will take precedence over the lesser charges in Pennsylvania.
While incarcerated in Pennsylvania, Mangione received 54 email messages and 87 pieces of mail, Maria Bivens of the state Department of Corrections told BI.
There were also 163 deposits made into Mangione's account, Bivens said. Bivens declined to say how much money was deposited in total.
These accounts can be used to purchase toiletries or additional food at the prison store.
