Luigi Mangione was ordered held without bail after an appearance in Manhattan federal court, capping a turbulent day that began in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week in the Dec. 4 attack on Brian Thompson.
The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate was scheduled to appear on murder charges Thursday in a case that has shaken the business world and galvanized some critics of health insurance, but federal charges prevented that appearance. The two cases will now run in parallel, prosecutors said, with the state’s charges set to go to trial first.
Luigi Mangione, handcuffed at the ankles and dressed in street clothes, said little during the 15 minutes of proceedings as he sat between his lawyers in a packed federal courtroom.
He nodded when a trial judge informed him of his rights and the charges against him, sometimes leaning toward a microphone to tell him he understood.
After the hearing, a federal agent gave Mr. Mangione’s lawyers a bag containing his personal effects, including the orange prison jumpsuit he had worn to court in Pennsylvania.
Luigi Mangione agreed to return to New York after an appearance Thursday morning in court in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week after five days on the run.
After his hearing in Pennsylvania court, Mangione was immediately handed over to at least a dozen New York Police Department (NYPD) officers who were present in the courtroom and who took him to a plane. destination Long Island. He was then flown by helicopter to Manhattan, where he was slowly led onto a pier by police armed with assault rifles.
The federal complaint unsealed Thursday accuses him of two counts of harassment and one count of murder by firearm, in addition to a firearms offense. One of the federal charges, murder by firearm, could carry the death penalty if convicted. Federal prosecutors have not indicated whether they will seek such a sentence.
The charges against him include murder as an act of terrorism, which can carry a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The death penalty does not exist in New York State.
Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said it was a “very unusual situation” for a defendant facing state and federal cases simultaneously.
“Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like what’s happening here,” said Friedman Agnifilo, a former chief deputy in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
She reserved the right to apply for bail at a later time and declined to comment as she left the courthouse.
The 26-year-old man is accused of ambushing and shooting Brian Thompson on December 4 in front of a Manhattan hotel where the boss of the American health insurance giant was going to an investors’ conference.
Authorities say that when Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., he was carrying the gun used to kill Brian Thompson, a passport, a fake New Jersey ID and about 10,000 $ in US and foreign currencies.
Mangione, who initially resisted extradition attempts to New York, made two brief court appearances Thursday, first waiving a preliminary hearing on the counterfeiting and firearms charges, before ‘finally agree to be sent back to Manhattan. He was immediately led out of court, escorted by police, and quietly got into a black SUV, in contrast to his last court appearance, when he fought with police and yelled at reporters.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was charged with the murder of Brian Thompson, who ran the largest health insurance company in the United States. (Benjamin B. Braun/Archives Associated Press)
Anger against insurers
Investigators believe Mangione was motivated by anger at the U.S. health care system and corporate greed. But he was never a UnitedHealthcare customer, according to the insurer.
According to the federal complaint, a notebook Mangione carried during his arrest included several handwritten pages expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular.
An entry from August stated that “the target is insurance” because “it checks all the boxes,” according to the court filing. An entry from October “describes an intention to ‘hit’ the CEO of one of the insurance companies at his investor conference,” the document states.
The killing sparked a wave of stories about resentment toward U.S. health insurance companies, while also shaking up American capitalism, after some social media users called the shooting revenge.
Video shows a masked gunman shooting 50-year-old Brian Thompson from behind, then firing several more shots. The suspect eluded police despite authorities releasing photos of his unmasked face until Mangione was captured in Altoona, about 280 miles west of New York.
Mangione, a computer science graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, carried a handwritten letter calling health insurance companies “parasites” and complaining about corporate greed, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by the ‘Associated Press last week.
One of his lawyers warned the public against making presumptions.
Mangione has repeatedly posted on social media how spinal surgery last year relieved his chronic back pain, encouraging people with similar conditions to speak out if they are told they just have to live with.
He has apparently become cut off from his family and close friends in recent months. His family reported him missing in San Francisco in November. His relatives said in a statement that they were “shocked and devastated” by his arrest.
Brian Thompson, who grew up on a farm in Iowa, trained as an accountant. Married with two teenagers, he worked for 20 years for the giant UnitedHealth Group and became CEO of its insurance division in 2021.
