U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett tied her decision to the schedule of Mangione\u2019s state murder trial, which is set to begin June 8 and take four to six weeks. She rejected a defense request to postpone the federal case until January or February 2027 so that it could then seek to delay the state case until September.<\/p>\n
Mangione\u2019s lawyers had argued that back-to-back trials on a compressed timeline would violate his constitutional rights. However, Garnett said their proposal to push the federal case into 2027 and slot the state case in its place doesn\u2019t \u201csolve any of these problems because it shifts the very same problems from the summer to the fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jury selection in the federal case will begin on Oct. 5 instead of Sept. 8, followed by opening statements and testimony on Oct. 26 instead of Oct. 13, Garnett said. The schedule could change again if the state trial is delayed, she said.<\/p>\n
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty. He wore leg shackles as he entered the packed courtroom Wednesday and spoke only to confirm that he had agreed to let his lawyers speak to the judge about trial strategy and attorney-client matters in her robing room without him present. He faces the possibility of life in prison if he\u2019s convicted in either case, which are set to occur two blocks apart in lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere really is no way around taking into account the events in the state case,\u201d Garnett told lawyers at a hearing in Manhattan federal court. \u201cWhether we like it or not, we\u2019re at the mercy of the state case.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Garnett said, \u201cI am skeptical of moving the (federal) trial wholesale into 2027 when the state trial has not been adjourned. It is a little bit of a tail wagging the dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the new trial date, Garnett compressed preparations for jury selection in the federal case so that they don\u2019t overlap with the state trial, giving Mangione more time to review questionnaires filled out by hundreds of potential jurors. The original schedule had been set when the death penalty was still on the table.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors opposed a trial delay, arguing that witnesses are harder to locate and memories fade with the passage of time. At least one witness will be traveling from abroad, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dominic Gentile said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public has a right to a speedy trial as well, especially in a case as significant as this,\u201d Gentile said, noting that Mangione\u2019s lawyers have had more than a year to prepare and that both cases involve the same allegations and witnesses.<\/p>\n
![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/UnitedHealthcare_CEO_Killed_47052.jpg\")
FILE \u2013 Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, Dec. 16, 2025. (Curtis Means\/Pool Photo via AP File)<\/p>\n
The state trial judge, Gregory Carro, previously raised the possibility of moving the state trial to September \u2014 but only if federal prosecutors appealed Garnett\u2019s decision barring them from seeking the death penalty<\/a>. They declined to do so.<\/p>\n Garnett\u2019s ruling on Wednesday leaves Carro little room to delay the state trial, and pushing it until after the federal trial could raise double jeopardy concerns.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s double jeopardy protections kick in if a jury has been sworn in in a prior prosecution, such as a federal case, or if that prosecution ends in a guilty plea. The cases involve different charges but the same alleged course of conduct.<\/p>\n At a hearing in February, Mangione spoke out against the prospect of two trials, telling the judge: \u201cIt\u2019s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group\u2019s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind.<\/p>\n Police say the words \u201cdelay,\u201d \u201cdeny\u201d and \u201cdepose\u201d were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used by critics to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.<\/p>\n Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later<\/a> at a McDonald\u2019s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.<\/p>\n