By MICHAEL R. SISAK
NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione pleaded not responsible Friday to a federal homicide cost within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as prosecutors formally declared their intent to hunt the dying penalty in opposition to him.
Mangione, 26, stood together with his attorneys as he entered the plea, leaning ahead towards a microphone as U.S. District Choose Margaret Garnett requested him if understood the indictment and the costs in opposition to him.
Mangione mentioned, “sure.” Requested how he wished to plead, Mangione mentioned merely, “not responsible” and sat down.
Mangione’s arraignment for the killing final December attracted a number of dozen individuals to the federal courthouse in Manhattan, together with former Military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served about seven years in jail for stealing labeled diplomatic cables.
Mangione, who has been held in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest, arrived to courtroom in a mustard-colored jail swimsuit. He chatted with one in every of his attorneys, dying penalty counsel Avi Moskowitz, as they wished for the arraignment to start.
Late Thursday evening, federal prosecutors filed a required discover of their intent to hunt the dying penalty.
That got here weeks after U.S. Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi introduced that she could be directing federal prosecutors to hunt the dying penalty for what she known as “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
It was the primary time the Justice Division mentioned 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 underneath the earlier administration.
Mangione’s attorneys have argued that Bondi’s announcement was a “political stunt” that corrupted the grand jury course of and disadvantaged him of his constitutional proper to due course of. They’d sought to dam prosecutors from searching for the dying penalty.
Mangione’s federal indictment features a cost of homicide via use of a firearm, which carries the potential of the dying penalty. The indictment, which mirrors a prison criticism introduced after Mangione’s arrest additionally fees him with stalking and a gun offense.
Mangione, an 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, outdoors a Manhattan resort on Dec. 4 as the manager arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor convention.
The state homicide fees carry a most punishment of life in jail.
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 sites 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.
Prosecutors have mentioned the 2 instances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state case anticipated to go to trial first, however Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo mentioned his protection staff would search to have the federal case take precedent as a result of it includes the dying penalty.
Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York Metropolis and whisked to Manhattan by aircraft and helicopter.
Police mentioned Mangione had a 9mm handgun that matched the one used within the taking pictures and different objects together with a pocket book through which they are saying he expressed hostility towards the medical insurance trade and rich executives.
Among the many entries, prosecutors mentioned, was one from August 2024 that mentioned “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 mentioned Mangione was by no means a shopper.
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