Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man charged with murder in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive, pleaded not guilty on Monday as he was arraigned on murder charges in New York State Supreme Court.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has
charged Mr. Mangione with first-degree murder, a terrorism-related offense, as well as two variations of second-degree murder and weapons charges. He faces the possibility of life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors said in court filings last week that Mr. Mangione’s actions were meant to further terrorism and were “intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population” and to “affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder.”
Mr. Mangione also faces federal charges: The Southern District of New York
charged him with murder through use of a firearm, which carries a maximum potential sentence of death, as well as two stalking counts and a firearms offense. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.
The
state case is expected to go to trial before the federal one, said Edward Y. Kim, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District, and state prosecutors said they would coordinate with federal agencies.
Mr. Mangione entered the courtroom for his arraignment on Monday wearing a maroon sweater and light-colored pants. His wrists and ankles were shackled. During the hearing, his lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, told the judge she was concerned about her client’s right to a fair trial. “His rights are being violated,” she said.
“He’s a young man, and he is being treated like a human ping pong ball,” she said, pointing to the federal and state cases and
their differing arguments.
She also described Mr. Mangione’s perp walk after he was extradited to New York last week, during
which he was accompanied by Mayor Eric Adams, as “unnecessary” and “utterly political.”
She suggested that Mr. Adams, who faces bribery and fraud charges, had taken part in hopes of distracting from his own case.
“What was the New York City mayor doing at this press conference,” she asked, adding that Mr. Adams “should know more than anyone about the presumption of innocence.”
The killing of the chief executive, Brian Thompson, renewed a debate about the American health care system. Many took to social media to voice their frustrations in their dealings with insurance companies and their practices of denying claims. Mr. Mangione
became, to some, a folk hero.
On Monday, about a dozen spectators, mostly young women, were waiting in line just after 6 a.m. in 11-degree weather, hoping to get into the courtroom for the arraignment. Across the street, camera crews set up their lights and other equipment. One person held a cardboard sign with the words “Deny, Defend, Depose.” Another held a sign that read “United States Healthcare Stole My Livelihood.”
Mr. Thompson was walking to the entrance of a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan on the morning of Dec. 4 for an investor meeting when a masked and hooded gunman opened fire behind him. He was shot once in the back and once in the leg.
The authorities have said it was Mr. Mangione who waited nearly an hour outside the hotel that morning and raised a 3-D-printed 9-milimeter handgun fitted with a suppressor and fired at Mr. Thompson.
Mr. Mangione was arrested after a five-day manhunt. He was spotted eating hash browns at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., by a fellow customer who remarked to a friend that he looked like the person in photos that had been released by the New York Police Department. An employee overheard the conversation and alerted the police.
He was found with a handgun, ammunition and a fake identification card, as well as a 262-word handwritten manifesto in which he appeared to take responsibility for the shooting. The manifesto also indicated that he saw the killing as a direct challenge to the health care industry’s “corruption” and “power games.”
Mr. Mangione also faces five charges in Pennsylvania, including carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities and possessing “instruments of crime,” according to a criminal complaint.
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