Garnett dismissed a murder charge<\/a>, saying it failed to meet the legal standard for showing Mangione killed Thompson while committing another \u201ccrime of violence.\u201d Stalking doesn\u2019t fit that definition, the judge found. <\/p>\nBut after Mangione entered the plea at Friday\u2019s hastily scheduled hearing, his lawyers quickly sought to have the New York case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds. The state\u2019s double jeopardy protections can kick in if a prior prosecution ends in a guilty plea.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson,\u201d said defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo outside the courtroom, arguing that her client shouldn\u2019t face two prosecutions over a \u201csingle tragic event.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office, which is handling the state prosecution, said it remains committed to its case and would contest the defense\u2019s efforts to shut it down.<\/p>\n
Mangione cites back pain<\/p>\n
Surveillance video of the ambush showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson, 50, from behind. Police say that the words \u201cdelay,\u201d \u201cdeny\u201d and \u201cdepose\u201d were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.<\/p>\n
That detail \u2014 and revelations that Mangione\u2019s private writings lambasted health insurers as greedy, according to authorities \u2014 made the case a fulcrum for debate about the industry and made Mangione a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre for some of its critics.<\/p>\n
A University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, Mangione told the court Friday that he pursued Thompson \u201cafter years of enduring severe pain from a broken back, navigating the obstacles of the health insurance system and witnessing similar experiences of countless others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friedman Agnifilo later said her client \u201cbelieved that the system had failed him and destroyed his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Murder is not a message\u2019<\/p>\n
Mangione never was a UnitedHealthcare customer, according to police and the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo those who idolize Luigi Mangione, I say this. Violence is not a cause. Murder is not a message. And a killer is certainly not a hero,\u201d said New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch outside court Friday.<\/p>\n
U.S. Atty. Jamie McDonald, whose office handled the federal case, added: \u201cThere can be no celebrity in assassination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson led one of the United States\u2019 largest health insurers, but he wasn\u2019t well known outside the industry. Trained as an accountant, he worked at parent company UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, in 2021. He and his wife had two sons, who were in high school when their father was killed.<\/p>\n
Thompson\u2019s violent death \u201cdevastated everyone who knew and loved him,\u201d the company said in a statement Friday, thanking law enforcement for bringing Mangione to justice.<\/p>\n
Disputes over evidence<\/p>\n
Mangione was arrested five days after the shooting, when he was spotted at a McDonald\u2019s in Altoona, Pa., about 230 miles west of Manhattan. Police had released various images of the suspected shooter, including one showing his face as he checked into a hostel.<\/p>\n
Although his lawyers got the federal murder charge dismissed, Garnett also delivered some setbacks to the defense, ruling in January that prosecutors could use items collected from Mangione\u2019s backpack during his arrest as evidence against him. They included a 3-D-printed pistol that investigators said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to kill an insurance executive.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the judge in the state case threw out terrorism charges against Mangione but agreed to let the gun and notebook be used as evidence. The case has been heading toward a September trial, but his lawyers\u2019 new bid to dismiss it could complicate the timeline.<\/p>\n
Sisak, Neumeister and Peltz write for the Associated Press. AP writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty Friday to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[32721,1840,25138,105323,11455,5112,14511,91,63796,6974,75,84,83,9,24,63,13489,7980,28318,121195,22563],"class_list":["post-321666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-case","tag-death","tag-decision","tag-disclosure","tag-friday","tag-judge","tag-killing","tag-lawyer","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-luigi-mangione","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-sept","tag-story","tag-thompson","tag-trial-state-murder-charge","tag-unitedhealthcare-ceo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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