Luigi Mangione is reportedly in discussions about a plea deal.
The 28-year-old is set to go on trial in September, accused of shooting a health executive outside a New York hotel in December 2024. He has denied all charges.
Mr Mangione’s lawyers and federal prosecutors are expected to discuss a possible plea deal at an unexpected court hearing scheduled for Friday, sources told CNN and ABC News.
The Ivy League university graduate is facing both state and federal charges. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted in either case.
He will first stand trial on a second-degree murder charge and gun charges brought by New York State. His federal trial, where he faces interstate stalking charges, is scheduled for January.
Any plea deal in the federal case could strengthen his defence’s argument that the state charges should be dismissed under New York’s double jeopardy rules, which prevent someone from being tried twice for the same case.
Richard C Schoenstein, a partner at New York law firm Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP, told The Telegraph: “If Mangione entered a plea deal in the federal case, it would not necessarily or automatically end the state case.
“But it doesn’t necessarily apply to separate prosecutions for separate crimes on the same event, so there is some debate whether it applies at all in Mangione’s case.”
In the state indictment, Mr Mangione faces nine charges, including second-degree murder, gun possession and criminal possession of a forged instrument. The state judge previously dismissed the top terrorism-related murder charges.
He also faces two federal counts of interstate stalking carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. A federal judge dismissed the murder and gun charges in January, taking the death penalty off the table.