NEW YORK– The suspect in the murder of CEO of United Healthcare has added a prominent attorney to his legal team as Manhattan prosecutors seek to have him returned from Pennsylvania to face murder charges.
Luigi Mangione will be represented by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who was a senior deputy in the Manhattan district attorney’s office for many years before entering private practice.
Friedman Agnifilo’s law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, confirmed in a statement late Friday that it had been appointed to represent Mangione. The company said it would not comment on the matter at this time.
Mangione was arrested Monday after a customer at a McDonald’s in Altoona, PAsaw him eating breakfast and noticed a resemblance to the person police wanted in the December 4 murder of Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
Police say Mangione was found with a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush outside New York’s Hilton Midtown, where Thompson arrived for his company’s annual investor conference.
Mangione, 26, was jailed without bail on Saturday in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with weapons offenses and forgery. Altoona is located about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City.
Mangione’s lawyer there, Thomas Dickey, has warned against prejudging the case and said his client would contest his extradition to New York.
But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday that there are indications that Mangione may now give up that fight.
“We will continue to pursue parallel paths, and we will be ready whether he waives the extradition or whether he contests the extradition,” Bragg said at an unrelated news conference in Times Square.
Hours after Mangione’s arrest on Monday, Bragg’s office filed paperwork charging him with five counts, including intentional homicide, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has said she is prepared to ask her Pennsylvania counterpart, Governor Josh Shapiro, to intervene and issue a gubernatorial order demanding Mangione’s extradition if he does not agree to voluntarily to be moved.
Mangione’s new attorney, Friedman Agnifilo, served as chief assistant district attorney from 2014 to 2021 and previously headed the office’s litigation division. She has made regular TV appearances, including as a legal analyst on CNN, co-hosts a weekly podcast and is a legal advisor for ‘Law & Order.”
Her husband and law partner Mark Agnifilo represents Sean “Diddy” Combs in the Manhattan hip-hop mogul’s federal sex trafficking case.