Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges on Friday, throwing a wrench into a separate state murder trial scheduled to begin next month over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
In the striking development, Mangione reversed his previous not guilty plea in federal court as members of Thompson’s family looked on from the front row. Mangione wore a khaki T-shirt and pants. Journalists and members of the public — some of them fans of the 28-year-old — filled the wooden benches in the downtown Manhattan courtroom.
After answering a series of questions from US District Judge Margaret Garnett, Mangione read a statement.
“After years of enduring severe pain from a broken back, navigating obstacles from the health insurance system, I learned that UnitedHealthcare would be holding its annual investor conference in New York City on December 4, 2024,” he said. “I traveled to New York with the intent to shoot Brian Thompson. On December 4, 2024, I shot Brian Thompson, and he died. When I did so, I understood my actions would place him in fear of death or severe bodily injury. I knew what I was doing.”
Garnett will decide the sentence on December 18. Mangione will remain in federal jail in Brooklyn until then.
In federal court, Mangione was facing two charges related to stalking Thompson before the healthcare executive was shot outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024. Both charges, which he pleaded guilty to on Friday, carried a maximum possible punishment of life in prison without parole. Garnett previously threw out death penalty-eligible murder and firearms charges that had been sought by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.
In a New York state courthouse down the block, Mangione remains — for now — scheduled to go to trial on September 8 on murder charges from the Manhattan district attorney’s office. He pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Now that Mangione pleaded guilty in the federal stalking case, his attorneys could ask Justice Gregory Carro, the state judge overseeing the murder case, to toss the murder charges under double jeopardy grounds.
A massive five-day manhunt ensued in 2024 after Thompson was gunned down, eventually ending in Mangione’s arrest when local police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, responded to a call that someone matching the suspect shooter’s description was eating breakfast inside a McDonald’s.
Mangione’s case has been closely watched due to the gruesome nature of Thompson’s killing and the resulting shock it sent across corporate America about whether they were doing enough to protect their top executives. Mangione has also gathered a following both in person and online, some of whom have made him a cause célèbre.
This story is developing…
Read the full article here
