Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is expected to appear on state murder and terrorism charges in Manhattan on Monday — after being separately charged with federal death penalty-eligible offenses following his climactic return to New York City.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Friday said state authorities were coordinating with the feds. He’s slated to be arraigned before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro at lower Manhattan’s 100 Centre St.
After waiving his extradition from Pennsylvania to New York Thursday — and being perp-walked in dramatic fashion by a cavalcade of armed law enforcement and Mayor Adams on a downtown helipad near Wall Street — Mangione was unexpectedly hauled to federal court in lower Manhattan. He was charged in a four-count complaint with murder with the use of a firearm, discharging a firearm with the use of a silencer, and two stalking offenses.
The top charge carries a maximum sentence of death. However, it’s unclear whether prosecutors, who has yet to secure an indictment, would pursue that punishment requiring signoff from the U.S. attorney general.
Following his brief court appearance, Mangione was transported to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which also houses high-profile inmate Sean “Diddy” Combs.
A source told the Daily News Friday that Mangione has no cell mates of note on his floor, which they described as “very low key.”
What happens next?
Mangione’s continued detention at the MDC or transfer to Rikers Island or another city jail facility is unclear, but is expected to be ironed out at Monday’s hearing.
He had been expected to appear on state charges filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office Thursday before the change of plans.
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JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images The Metropolitan Detention Center, (MDC) in Brooklyn, a United States federal administrative detention facility is pictured on July 6, 2020 in New York City.
In his state case, Mangione is accused of first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, second-degree murder as a crime of terrorism — which carries a maximum prison term of life without parole — and nine other offenses.
Prosecutors at the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, currently under the leadership of Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Kim, and Bragg’s office on Thursday said the cases will play out parallel to each other and that the state case will go to trial first.
Defense raises double jeopardy
Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, described being blindsided by the change in circumstances at Thursday’s federal court hearing and raised the prospect of a double jeopardy motion.
“There, they talk about terrorism and potentially influencing a group of people. This is stalking an individual. That’s what the theory is here. Those are two completely different theories. These seem like different cases,” Friedman Agnifilo said of the state and federal matters.
“I find out today that … all of a sudden, we are here in the Southern District of New York facing charges that one charge is death-eligible, and I would like to seek clarity from the government exactly what’s happening here. Is there one case? Two cases? Two investigations? Is it a joint investigation?”
Whether Friedman Agnifilo intends to pursue the argument that the dueling cases violate double jeopardy laws remains to be seen. She has declined to comment outside of what she said in court.
In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court held that someone could be prosecuted for the same crimes in the state and federal courts, finding local governments and the federal government were “separate sovereigns.”
The allegations
Mangione, an Ivy League computer science graduate who comes from a wealthy and well-known Maryland family is accused in both the state and federal cases of sneaking up on Thompson shortly before 7 a.m. on Dec. 4 as the health care executive arrived at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown for an investor conference and fatally shooting him in the back and leg.
Obtained by Daily News
Surveillance video captured the moment a masked gunman fatally shoots Brian Thompson. (Obtained by Daily News)
He was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., after someone recognized him and a worker called the cops. Mangione was in possession of a 3D-printed ghost gun, silencer, and ammunition matching that which was recovered at the scene, according to state and federal authorities, and writings critical of Thompson’s line of work.
Mangione also faces lower-level offenses in Pennsylvania, including carrying a firearm without a license, forgery, and giving cops a fake ID when he was apprehended, which prosecutors there have said they will wait to try him on until after his New York matters have been resolved.
Authorities lay out potential motives
In court papers Thursday, the feds alleged Mangione’s stalking campaign began Nov. 24 when he traveled to the city on a bus that originated in Atlanta, Ga., and checked into an Upper West Side hostel for 10 days.
They alleged Mangione methodically planned the hit, seemingly counting down the days in the months beforehand. The federal complaint describes excerpts of his handwritten notebook entries “that express hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular.”
The killing of Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two high school students from Minnesota, has garnered international media attention and an outpouring of support for his suspected killer online from people critical of the U.S.’s expensive health insurance industry.
He wrote on Reddit and other online forums about a severe spinal cord condition that saw him undergo surgery, and his family and friends have said he became estranged from them in the months before the shooting.
