Luigi Mangione hired veteran former New York City prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo to defend him Friday against murder charges, according to a statement released Friday evening by his law firm Agnifilo Intrater LLP.
Friedman Agnifilo served as second-in-command in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office from 2014 to 2021 under former prosecutor Cyrus Vance. A biography posted on her law firm’s website says she played a leading role in prosecuting “high-profile violent crime cases,” including those involving mental health issues and non-criminal homicides. resolved.
“Karen Friedman Agnifilo has three decades of experience in criminal justice, litigation and trials. His practice focuses on criminal defense in state and federal courts, leveraging his extensive experience prosecuting serious violent crimes, including complex homicide cases, from accusation to investigation to trial. ‘arrest and trial,’ his biography says.
“While working at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Ms. Friedman Agnifilo also helped establish the Human Trafficking Unit, the Hate Crimes Unit, the Trafficking Unit of Antiquities, the Terrorism Unit, its Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau, as well as the creation of Manhattan’s first mental health court,” the biography continues.
Friedman Agnifilo is also a frequent guest and commentator on television news and is a former legal analyst for CNN.
She is also co-host of a weekly podcast on the Meidas Touch Network where she discusses emerging legal issues and litigation strategy that regularly has half a million listeners per episode, according to her bio. She also serves as legal counsel for the television show Law and Order.
Luigi Mangione, 26, suspect in the New York City murder of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson, is escorted after an extradition hearing at the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, December 10, 2024.
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Meanwhile, law enforcement sources told ABC News that writings seized from Luigi Mangione indicate he was developing a fixation and increasing malice toward UnitedHealthcare and that he allegedly talked about harming his boss for months.
Some of the entries in the notebook seized from Mangione during his arrest in Pennsylvania earlier this week bore dates as far back as mid-2024, the sources said.
This fixation would eventually turn into an alleged plan to shoot this CEO, the sources said.
Some of the writings were in diary form, documenting how he felt, what he did that day, and also documented his desire to focus on his health and himself and find his purpose, the sources said.
Then, over time – as Mangione reportedly lost contact with friends and family and became increasingly isolated – some of his writings indicated a deterioration in his thinking and state of mind, illustrating a gradual evolution towards the alleged murder plan. UnitedHealthCare CEO at their annual “stray bean convention,” sources said.
A poster depicting Luigi Mangione hangs outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in New York, December 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Julia Démarée Nikhinson/AP
Mangione’s writings, obtained by ABC News, claim that the United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, but ranks 42nd in life expectancy. He said UnitedHealthcare “has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No, the reality is that these [indecipherable] have simply become too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profits. »
“I apologize for any traumatic conflict, but it had to be done,” he reportedly wrote. “Frankly, these parasites just had it coming.”
Neither Mangione nor his parents had insurance through UnitedHealthcare, according to UnitedHealth Group.
Mangione, 26, is currently being held in a Pennsylvania state prison after a judge denied him bail Tuesday.
