Luigi Mangione Pleads Guilty, Reveals How He Tracked UnitedHealthcare CEO
Key Highlights
- Mangione admitted using a 3-D printer to make the gun and silencer used in the fatal shooting.
- The federal offenses carry a potential maximum sentence of life in prison.
- His attorneys are seeking dismissal of the separate New York state murder case on double jeopardy grounds.
NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courtroom Friday to fatally stalking UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a dramatic turning point in the high-profile prosecution over the executive’s predawn murder outside a Midtown hotel in December 2024.
In a stunning courtroom admission before members of Thompson’s grieving family, Mangione admitted to plotting to murder the executive at a Midtown conference. He said was able to learn details about time and location of the event that weren’t otherwise readily available by pretending to be a billionaire health insurance investor.
“After years of enduring severe back pain, a broken back, navigating the obstacles of the health system, I learned that UnitedHealthcare would be holding its annual investor conference in New York City,” Mangione told Manhattan Federal Court Judge Margaret Garnett.
In the month before the shooting, Mangione said he traveled to New York and emailed the company posing as an investor.
“Unlike my previous conversations with insurers, I received an immediate response,” he said.
The Maryland man said he used a 3-D printer to make a gun equipped with a silencer, admitting that on Dec. 4, 2024:
“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he died.”
Guilty plea complicates parallel state murder case
The plea throws a wrench in Mangione’s parallel state prosecution scheduled for trial next month. Within an hour of the plea conference ending, Mangione’s legal team filed a motion in state court seeking the dismissal of those charges on double jeopardy grounds.
“With today’s guilty plea, Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson arising from the events of December 4, 2024,” Mangione’s lead attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said. “It was a single tragic event, yet he is being prosecuted twice for the same conduct.”
The stunning gambit could, in theory, reduce Mangione’s overall exposure to prison time. While the federal offenses Mangione pleaded to Friday, stalking and surveilling Thompson with intent to kill, have the potential to put him behind bars the rest of his life, a later sentence on state charges could get tacked onto whatever time he gets on the federal charges.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office told the court that prosecutors had not offered him any deal.
A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is trying the state case, said the state plans has every intention of pressing forward.
“The Manhattan D.A.’s Office has been tirelessly preparing to pursue a trial conviction in New York State Supreme Court for the alleged cold-blooded murder of Brian Thompson. We are encouraged that Mr. Thompson’s family received a measure of accountability today,” Doug Cohen said. “While federal sentencing is pending, we are prepared to litigate the defense motions.”
Wearing beige prison garb, Mangione was brought into the courtroom shackled at the wrists and ankles at around 11:10 a.m. Friday, stopping for a moment to scan faces in the gallery before taking his seat at the defense table.
When asked by Garnett if he understood the consequences of pleading guilty, Mangione said he did and that he was clear minded and not under the influence of any drugs that might affect his judgment.
Garnett advised Mangione he could spend the rest of his life in prison, and said she would not permit him to revoke his plea if he was unhappy with the term imposed. Mangione affirmed that he understood.
“The total maximum term for both of these crimes is life in prison,” Garnett said.
The judge further warned Mangione that if convicted in the state case he could end up serving consecutive sentences.
The killing of Thompson, 50, touched off a broad debate about unaffordability in the U.S. health insurance industry, with throngs of Mangione supporters flocking to his hearings in support of his defense.
Members of Thompson’s family attended Friday’s hearing. In a statement to the New York Daily News afterward, they said the plea brought a measure of closure.
“Today’s guilty plea marks an important step toward justice for Brian and for our family,” the family said in a statement released after the hearing.
“While nothing will ease the pain of losing him, we are grateful that the federal justice system has held the person responsible for this heinous act accountable. Now we look to the court to ensure that sentencing reflects the severity of this crime. We remain mindful that additional proceedings in New York and Pennsylvania are still to come, and we will continue to seek the justice Brian deserves.”
Mangione details how he targeted Thompson
The feds’ case alleged that Mangione had stalked the executive for weeks and laid out plans to kill him in a manifesto that lamented greed in the health insurance industry at the expense of everyday Americans’ well-being. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dominic Gentile on Friday detailed extensive evidence prosecutors had been prepared to present at the federal trial, which was scheduled to begin in January.
Mangione, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, had pleaded not guilty to the stalking offenses last spring.
He was not charged with taking Thompson’s life in the federal case, with Garnett earlier this year dismissing the top count of murder through the use of a firearm as the other charges in the indictment did not sufficiently support it.
In the parallel state case, however, Mangione is charged with Thompson’s murder under New York state law in a case being tried by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which first filed charges in relation to the Midtown killing.
The trial in that case is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Sept. 8. Mangione has pleaded not guilty.
The DA’s office previously said it would push Garnett to consider the threat a plea in the federal case would pose to the state prosecution and the wishes of Thompson’s family.
Under New York law, a person cannot be tried twice for the same conduct, barring limited exceptions, including distinctive elements of the separate charges intended to address very different types of “harm or evil.”
Mangione, 28, has been incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his 2024 arrest.
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