Luigi Mangionehas agreed to plead guilty to federal stalking charges related to the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
His lawyers told a federal judge on Friday he intends to plead guilty to the two remaining federal counts against him moments after arrived in federal courtroom in Manhattan wearing tan prison scrubs.
Mangione, a 28-year-old Ivy League graduate, was the subject of a days-long manhunt after Thompson’s killing outside a Manhattan hotel, sparking intense public interest, outrage and polarizing debate over the far-reaching impacts of the nation’s health insurance industry.
He was facing two federal charges of stalking resulting in death, which carried a maximum sentence of life in prison, after several other charges were dropped that could have carried the death penalty, if convicted.
Earlier this week, lawyers for Mangione unexpectedly asked a federal judge to convene a pretrial hearing in the case for Friday morning.
Mangione’s plea arrived roughly a month before he is scheduled to go to trial in New York state criminal court on separate charges stemming from Thompson’s killing.
In New York criminal court, Mangione has pleaded not guilty to eight charges, including second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. The charges carry a possibility of life in prison.
From the start of the cases, Mangione’s defense team has argued that the charges brought in federal and state court amounted to double jeopardy — or the prosecution of a person twice for the same offenses.
Mangione’s lawyers had already successfully narrowed the charges against their client.
Federal prosecutors had originally sought to bring the death penalty against Mangione by charging him with using a firearm to commit murder. It was part of a directive by President Donald Trump to renew pushes for capital punishment.
But earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed two charges, including the one carrying the death penalty, against Mangione.
A judge overseeing Mangione’s state case also dismissed two charges brought by state prosecutors: first-degree murder and a state terrorism charge.
Mangione graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020 and was the valedictorian of his 2016 graduating class at the Gilman School in Baltimore.
In the early morning of December 4, 2024, hours before Thompson was slated to attend an annual investors meeting, Mangione allegedly fatally shot Thompson, 50, outside of a midtown Manhattan hotel.
Video showed the moment he was ambushed by a masked man and gunned down on a New York City sidewalk.
Law enforcement officials engaged in a multi-state, days-long manhunt for Mangione, capturing the nation’s attention and sparking intense scrutiny into the nation’s for-profit health insurance industry and Mangione’s alleged motive.
He was captured on December 9, 2024, inside a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Bullet casings found after the shooting reportedly had the words “deny,” “delay,” and “depose” written on them, referencing an alleged tactic used by insurance companies to deny claims. Police allegedly discovered a “ghost gun” and a notebook expressing his animosity toward the corporate healthcare system.
Mangione’s arrest and the circumstances of the shooting, driven by widespread anger over denied insurance claims and corporate greed, lionized Mangione as a kind of antihero. Fans arrived at his court hearings with signs and supportive T-shirts.
His supporters also donated more than $1.5 million to a legal defense fund and sent long letters to the jail where he is being held.