The person accused of fatally capturing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare pleaded not responsible on Monday to state homicide and terror fees whereas his legal professional complained that feedback coming from New York’s mayor would make it robust to obtain a good trial.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was shackled and seated in a Manhattan court docket when he leaned over to a microphone to enter his plea. The Manhattan district legal professional charged him final week with a number of counts of homicide, together with homicide as an act of terrorism, in a state case that may run alongside his federal prosecution.
His preliminary look in New York’s state trial court docket was preempted by federal prosecutors bringing their very own fees over the capturing. The federal fees might carry the potential for the loss of life penalty, whereas the utmost sentence for the state fees is life in jail with out parole.
Prosecutors have mentioned the 2 instances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state fees anticipated to go to trial first.
Luigi Mangione seems in Manhattan Legal court docket for his arraignment on state homicide and terror fees within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in New York. (Curtis Means/Pool Picture by way of AP)
Certainly one of Mangione’s attorneys instructed a choose that authorities officers, together with New York Mayor Eric Adams, have turned Mangione right into a political pawn, robbing him of his rights as a defendant and tainting the jury pool.
“I’m very involved about my consumer’s proper to a good trial,” mentioned Karen Friedman Agnifilo.
Town’s mayor and prime police official stood amongst a throng of closely armed officers final Thursday when Mangione was flown to a Manhattan heliport and escorted up a pier after being extradited from Pennsylvania.
“I needed to look him within the eye and say you carried out this terroristic act in my metropolis — town that the folks of New York love,” the mayor instructed an area TV station.
Friedman Agnifilo mentioned police turned Mangione’s return to New York right into a choreographed spectacle.
“He was on show for everybody to see within the largest stage perp stroll I’ve ever seen in my profession. It was completely pointless,” she mentioned.
His legal professional additionally accused federal and state prosecutors of advancing conflicting authorized theories, calling their strategy complicated and extremely uncommon. “He’s being handled like a human pingpong ball between warring jurisdictions right here,” she mentioned Monday.
State trial court docket Choose Gregory Carro mentioned he has little management over what occurs outdoors the courtroom, however can assure Mangione will obtain a good trial.
Authorities say Mangione gunned down Brian Thompson as he was strolling to an investor convention in midtown Manhattan on the morning of December 4.
Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s after a five-day search, carrying a gun that matched the one used within the capturing and a faux ID, police mentioned. He additionally was carrying a pocket book expressing hostility towards the medical health insurance trade and particularly rich executives, based on federal prosecutors.
At a information convention final week, Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg mentioned the applying of the terrorism regulation mirrored the severity of a “scary, well-planned, focused homicide that was meant to trigger shock and a focus and intimidation.”
“In its most elementary phrases, this was a killing that was meant to evoke terror,” he added.
Mangione is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside a number of different high-profile defendants, together with Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried.
Throughout his court docket look Monday, he smiled at instances when speaking together with his attorneys and stretched his proper hand after an officer eliminated his cuffs.
Exterior the courthouse, a number of dozen supporters chanted, “Free Luigi,” over the blare of a trumpet.
Natalie Monarrez, a 55-year-old Staten Island resident, mentioned she joined the demonstration as a result of she misplaced each her mom and her life financial savings on account of denied insurance coverage claims.
“As excessive because it was, it jolted the dialog that we have to take care of this situation,” she mentioned of the capturing. “Sufficient is sufficient, individuals are fed up.”
An Ivy-league graduate from a outstanding Maryland household, Mangione appeared to have reduce himself off from household and buddies in latest months. He posted incessantly in on-line boards about his struggles with again ache. He was by no means a UnitedHealthcare consumer, based on the insurer.
Thompson, a married father of two high-schoolers, had labored on the big UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and have become CEO of its insurance coverage arm in 2021.
The killing has prompted some to voice their resentment at US well being insurers, with Mangione serving as a stand-in for frustrations over protection denials and hefty medical payments. It additionally has despatched shockwaves by the company world, rattling executives who say they’ve acquired a spike in threats.
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ
Source link
