NEW YORK– Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty in a New York courtroom on Monday to file charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel earlier this month.
Prosecutors claim Mangione was found in possession of what is believed to be the murder weaponand surveillance video shows a man matching his description before and after the attackalso outside the Hilton where Thompson was shot in the back.
Mangione entered the courtroom with his hands and feet shackled. He wore a maroon sweater over a white-collared shirt and chinos.
The long line of reporters waiting to enter the courtroom Monday morning included members of the public — almost all of them young women — some of whom told Ali Bauman of CBS News New York that they were there to support Mangione.
A key difference between state and federal charges is that the state argues the shooting was an act of terror. Additionally, the federal charges open the possibility of the death penalty.
Mangione, 26, is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after he appeared in federal court last week.
Luigi Mangione is facing both state and federal charges
Like him, Mangione was flanked by heavily armed guards extradited from Pennsylvania to New York last Thursday. He subsequently appeared in federal court on charges of stalking and murder.
In a statement, his attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo called the federal charges “highly unusual,” saying they raise “serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy.”
The federal complaint revealed Mangione was found with a notebook with handwritten pages expressing “hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says his office is cooperating with the federal government and that although the cases are happening at the same time, the trials will have to take place at different times. Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Kim said he expects the state’s case to proceed first.
