Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is expected to appear on murder and terrorism charges in Manhattan on Monday – having been separately charged with federal death penalty offenses following his climactic return to New York.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Friday that state authorities were coordinating with the federal government. He is expected to be arraigned before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro at 100 Center St.
After waiving his extradition from Pennsylvania to New York on Thursday — and being dramatically hounded by a cavalcade of armed law enforcement and Mayor Adams at a downtown helipad near Wall Street — Mangione was unexpectedly hauled into federal court in lower Manhattan. He was charged with four counts of murder with the use of a firearm, discharge of a firearm with the use of a silencer and two counts of stalking.
The main charge carries a maximum penalty of death. However, it is unclear whether prosecutors, who have not yet obtained an indictment, will pursue that sanction requiring approval from the U.S. attorney general.
After his brief court appearance, Mangione was transported to the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, which also houses high-profile inmate Sean “Diddy” Combs.
A source told the Daily News on Friday that Mangione had no notable cellmates on his floor, who they described as “very low-key.”
What happens next?
Whether Mangione will continue to be detained at MDC or transferred to Rikers Island or another city correctional facility is unclear, but is expected to be resolved at Monday’s hearing.
He was scheduled to appear in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office on 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 center, is pictured on July 6, 2020 in New York.
In his state filing, Mangione is charged with first-degree murder in aid of terrorism, second-degree murder as a terrorism crime — punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole — and nine other crimes.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, currently under Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Kim, and Bragg’s office said Thursday that the cases would run in parallel and the state case would be tried first .
The defense raises double incrimination
Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, described being blindsided by the change in circumstances during Thursday’s hearing in Federal Court and raised the prospect of a double jeopardy motion.
“There they are talking about terrorism and potential influence on a group of people. It’s stalking an individual. That’s the theory here. These are two completely different theories. They seem to be different cases,” Friedman Agnifilo said of state and federal issues.
“I find out today that…all of a sudden we are here in the Southern District of New York facing charges that one charge qualifies for death, and I would like to ask the government to clarify exactly what is happening here. Is there a case? Two cases? Two investigations? Is this a joint investigation?
It remains to be seen whether Friedman Agnifilo intends to pursue the argument that dueling cases violate double jeopardy laws. She declined to comment on anything other than what she said in court.
In 2019, the United States Supreme Court held that a person could be prosecuted for the same crimes in state and federal courts, holding that local governments and the federal government were “separate sovereigns.”
The allegations
Mangione, an Ivy League computer science graduate from a wealthy and well-known Maryland family, is accused in the federal and state cases of sneaking up on Thompson shortly before 7 a.m. on Dec. 4, while the health care manager arrived at the Hilton. Hotel in Midtown for an investor conference and shot him in the back and leg.
Obtained by Daily News
Surveillance video captured the moment a masked gunman fatally shot Brian Thompson. (Obtained by Daily News)
He was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after someone recognized him and an employee called the cops. Mangione was in possession of a 3D-printed ghost gun, a silencer and ammunition matching those recovered at the scene, according to state and federal authorities, as well as writings critical of Thompson’s work.
Mangione also faces lower-level crimes in Pennsylvania, including carrying a firearm without a license, forgery and giving officers a fake ID when he was arrested, for which prosecutors have said they would wait to try him until his cases in New York were settled. been resolved.
Authorities outline potential motivations
In court documents released Thursday, federal authorities said Mangione’s campaign of harassment began Nov. 24 when he traveled to the city on a bus from Atlanta, Georgia, and s He was staying at an Upper West Side hostel for 10 days.
They claimed Mangione methodically planned the hit, apparently counting the days over the preceding months. The federal complaint describes excerpts of his handwritten notes “that express hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular.”
The killing of Thompson, 50, a father of two Minnesota high school students, drew international media attention and an outpouring of online support for his alleged killer from people critical of the high-cost insurance industry. health insurance in the United States.
He wrote on Reddit and other online forums about a serious spinal cord illness that led him to undergo surgery, and his family and friends said he had become estranged from them in the months before the shooting.
