NEW YORK– A triptych of criminal charges paints a searing, sometimes disparate portrait of the man accused of ambush and murder CEO of United Healthcare Brian Thompson arrived as a director at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
The suit was filed separately in state courts in New York and Pennsylvania, and in a federal court in Manhattan, with a total of 20 counts. Luigi Mangione as both a terrorist and a stalker, accuse him of carrying a ghost gun and a fake ID, and allow prosecutors to seek life in state prison and the federal death penalty.
On Monday, in the last of three court hearings in five days, the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate pleaded not guilty in New York state court to an indictment charging him with 11 charges in connection with the December 4 murderincluding murder as a terrorist crime.
Mangione’s arraignment followed back-to-back hearings last Thursday in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested on Dec. 9, and in federal court in Manhattan, where a judge ordered him jailed without bail on murder, firearms and stalking charges.
Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has argued that the terrorism allegations in the state case and the stalking allegations in the federal complaint appear to be at odds. Prosecutors are treating him “like a human ping-pong ball and “some kind of spectacle,” she said in court Monday.
Here is an overview of the cases and the charges:
Mangione’s state court indictment alleges he killed Thompson to “intimidate or coerce” a group of people and influence public policy “through intimidation or coercion.”
It includes three counts of murder, alleging Mangione was killed “in furtherance of terrorism,” as a terrorist act and with intent, and carries a maximum prison sentence of life in prison.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is prosecuting the case, said last week that the ambush in downtown Manhattan was “an assassination intended to incite terror.”
The indictment also charges Mangione with seven counts gun-related counts and one count involved a fake New Jersey driver’s license that prosecutors said he checked into a Manhattan hostel when he arrived in the city 10 days before the murder.
Prosecutors say they expect the state’s case to be the first to go to trial.
After his arraignment Monday, Mangione was returned to a federal prison in Brooklyn while state and federal authorities figure out where he will be held while the state’s case plays out.
A day after Bragg announced charges against Mangione, federal prosecutors upped the ante with a four-count criminal complaint that could result in the indictment. death penalty if convicted.
The complaint charges two counts of stalking and one count of murder by use of a firearm, a firearms offense. Murder by use of a firearm carries the possibility of the death penalty, although prosecutors have not said whether they will seek it.
Mangione made his first appearance on the charges before a federal magistrate last Thursday, but was not required to enter a plea. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has until mid-January to finalize a federal grand jury indictment.
According to the federal complaint, Mangione had a spiral notebook in which he expressed hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives. UnitedHealthcare is the largest health insurer in the US, although the company says Mangione has never been a customer.
Among the submissions, the complaint said, was one from August stating that “its purpose is insurance” because “it checks every box” and one from October describing an intention to “move” the CEO of an insurance company .
Mangione was arrested on December 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City, and was initially charged with possession of a firearm without a license, forgery and providing false identification to police.
Blair County Peter Weeks said last week that he plans to keep the case active and plans to revisit it once Mangione’s murder charges are adjudicated.
Mangione was arrested while having breakfast at an Altoona McDonald’s after a customer noticed he looked like the person in surveillance photos police distributed of Thompson’s killer.
Officers found a handgun that matched the weapon used in the shooting, a fake ID and writings expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry, prosecutors said.
Hours later, the Manhattan district attorney’s office filed the paperwork for an arrest warrant for Mangione on murder charges. Mangione, who was being held without bail in Pennsylvania, diverted a protracted extradition battle by agreeing to be flown to New York last Thursday.