A federal grand jury in Manhattan has indicted Luigi Mangione in a death penalty-eligible case for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to court documents filed Thursday.
Mangione was charged with two stalking counts, murder through the use of a firearm, which carries the potential for capital punishment, and a firearms offense for the fatal shooting on Dec. 4 outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown. He is tentatively set to appear in court on Friday to enter a plea. His case was assigned to Manhattan Federal Court Judge Margaret Garnett, the former chief of the city Department of Investigation and deputy U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Before presenting the case to a grand jury, the feds in December filed a complaint against Mangione upon his dramatic extradition to New York from Pennsylvania, when he was flown to a downtown heliport and unexpectedly taken into custody by the feds while en route to appear on state-level charges being handled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier this month that the feds would seek the death penalty against Mangione, making him the first person to be targeted with capital punishment since President Trump’s return to power. Trump has promised more forceful use of the death penalty, particularly in cases against undocumented immigrants and even in cases where the defendant isn’t accused of murder.
In Bragg’s case, the Maryland Ivy League grad has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and terror offenses, which carry the possibility of life without parole.
Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota, was fatally shot in the street, arriving early for an annual investor conference in December. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., five days later following a nationwide manhunt that gripped the nation.
Mangione has received a swell of support from people angry at the U.S.’s expensive healthcare industry, with hundreds attempting to attend his last court appearance. State and federal authorities allege he had a manifesto expressing hostility toward the industry and that shell casings at the scene bore the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” in an apparent reference to the industry routinely denying claims to maximize profits.
Mangione’s attorneys declined to comment.
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