Accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione hit with federal charges that could carry death penalty on NYC return

Luigi Mangione was hit Thursday with a potential death penalty case in the slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson after a jolting sequence of events that saw him unexpectedly hauled to Manhattan federal court after a dramatic perp walk on the Wall Street heliport.

Mangione was widely expected to be arraigned on state murder and terrorism charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office — including by prosecutors and his lawyers — after waiving his extradition to New York at a court hearing in Pennsylvania.

Instead, after he touched down in New York shortly after 1 p.m., the 26-year-old Maryland man was charged in an unsealed federal complaint with murder through the use of a firearm, which carries a maximum potential sentence of death or life in prison, and stalking and firearm offenses.

“It is a highly unusual situation that we find ourselves in,” Mangione’s attorney Karen Agnifilo said at a Manhattan federal court hearing, adding she had been prepared to defend him against state charges announced by Bragg’s office on Tuesday.

“I don’t think they even knew this was going to happen,” the lawyer added. “There are a lot of factors that are very confusing and highly unusual. Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Manhattan Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker detained Mangione without bail after his legal team reserved making a bail application and set a preliminary hearing for Jan. 18. The court date will become moot if the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office secures an indictment from a grand jury in the interim.

A clean-shaven Mangione, wearing a navy blue sweater, a white collared shirt, and khaki pants, looked back once at the gallery in court and was silent except for answering “yes” when asked whether he understood his rights and what he was being accused of and had read the complaint.

The University of Pennsylvania graduate is accused of gunning down Thompson, 50, on W. 54th St. as the CEO arrived for the annual investor conference of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company at the Midtown Hilton early on Dec. 4 in a caught-on-surveillance. He was arrested more than 200 miles away five days later when a patron recognized him eating hash browns at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Authorities recovered a 9mm 3D-printed ghost gun and silencer, ammunition matching that found at the scene, and writings critical to the healthcare industry, according to court records.

The federal complaint, replete with stills from surveillance footage of the incident, accused Mangione of beginning a stalking campaign against Thompson on Nov. 24 when he traveled to the city from Atlanta, Ga., and checked into an Upper West Side hostel for 10 days. His trip over state lines to carry out the alleged crimes gave the feds jurisdiction to bring the case.

The complaint alleges Mangione took months to plan the early morning murder, quoting entries he allegedly wrote in a notebook “that express hostility towards the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular.”

In an August entry, Mangione allegedly wrote that he was “glad — in a way — that I’ve procrastinated, (because) it allowed me to learn more” about an insurance company whose name the feds redacted from court papers. The entry said, “the target is insurance” because “it checks every box,” according to the feds.

“1.5 months. This investor conference is a true windfall . . . and – most importantly — the message becomes self-evident,” read an Oct. 22 entry cited, which said it went on to describe a desire to “‘wack’ the CEO of one of the insurance companies at its investor conference.”

In his Manhattan state case, Mangione is accused in an 11-count indictment of first-degree murder, second-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, an additional murder count, multiple firearm charges, and forgery. If convicted of the top counts, he could face life in prison without parole.

Spokespersons for Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Edward Kim said Mangione’s state case was expected to proceed to trial first.

It wasn’t immediately clear when he would appear in state court or whether he would be held in a city or federal jail facility.

“As alleged, Luigi Mangione traveled to New York to stalk and shoot Thompson in broad daylight in front of a Manhattan hotel, all in a grossly misguided attempt to broadcast Mangione’s views across the country,” Kim said in a statement.

Assistant director of the FBI’s New York bureau, James Dennehy, said the “this alleged plot demonstrates a cavalier attitude towards humanity – deeming murder an appropriate recourse to satiate personal grievances.”

Mangione first appeared in court Thursday in Blair County, Pa., wearing an orange jumpsuit around 7:30 a.m. In the Keystone State, he’s accused of carrying a firearm without a license, forgery, and giving cops a fake ID when he was apprehended. He’s not expected to be tried on those charges before his New York matters conclude.

Mangione’s apparent anger toward the health insurance industry has prompted an outpouring of support and sympathy for him online from people frustrated with the U.S. health insurance industry, with an online crowdfunding effort raising more than $140,000 toward his legal defense. On Thursday, protesters gathered outside the courthouse were heard yelling, “Free Luigi!”

The DA and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, at a press conference earlier this week, decried the support, with Tisch saying authorities had tracked a “shocking and appalling celebration of cold-blooded murder.”

Mangione, who comes from a wealthy and well-known family from suburban Baltimore, has not spoken publicly since his arrest outside of mostly inaudible remarks he yelled to the press at his first Pennsylvania court appearance about “an insult to the American people and their lived experience.”

Interviews with his friends and various writings he published on Reddit and other forums have shed some light on his medical history, including chronic back issues that saw him undergo spinal fusion surgery.

In court filings in the DA’s case, prosecutors said two discharged shell casings at the scene of Thompson’s killing bore the words “deny” and “depose,” and a bullet featured the word “delay,” in an apparent reference to the health insurance industry routinely denying medical care to maximize profits.

The NYPD has alleged Mangione had a “manifesto” laying out his reasons for the killing. He allegedly wrote that the U.S. had the most expensive health care in the world yet ranked 42nd in life expectancy and that insurers had “simply gotten too powerful,” continuing to “abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has (allowed) them to get away with it.”

Authorities say Mangione’s mother reported him missing to the San Francisco police department in November and that an officer handling the missing person case recognized him in widely-circulated surveillance images after the shooting and contacted the FBI.

NYPD officials on Tuesday said they made contact with Mangione’s mother on Dec. 7, who said she didn’t know if it was him in the pictures but that the shooting “might be something that she could see him doing.”

Mangione’s climactic return to New York Thursday saw Mayor Eric Adams, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and dozens of armed state and federal law enforcement officers waiting for him at the downtown helipad, an unusually public showing for what is typically a covert arrangement.

Former NYPD intelligence director John Miller told CNN the turnout wasn’t intended to protect the public from Mangione.

“The security around Mangione today is because of what they’ve been seeing in terms of the public support for him and their security worries about somebody not trying to attack him, but to try and free him from law enforcement,” Miller said.

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