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Luigi Mangione indicted on federal charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing
By
Samantha Max
Published Apr 18, 2025
Modified Apr 18, 2025
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Curtis Means - Pool / Getty Images
By
Samantha Max
Published Apr 18, 2025
Modified Apr 18, 2025
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Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League graduate accused of killing a health care executive in Midtown Manhattan, was indicted in federal court late Thursday.
A grand jury indicted Mangione on charges of stalking, murder with a firearm and another gun offense, according to the four-count indictment. Prosecutors say he traveled across state lines to stalk and kill United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last December.
Federal prosecutors charged Mangione in a complaint that month. The new indictment comes after a grand jury heard evidence and found probable cause to move the case forward. The murder charge is eligible for the death penalty if Mangione is convicted.
The 26-year-old also faces a state court indictment in Manhattan. In that case, he has pleaded not guilty to a host of charges, including murder as an act of terrorism.
A spokesperson for Mangione’s defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo referred reporters to a statement she made earlier this month, in which she said the U.S. Justice Department had “moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric” in seeking the death penalty.
“Luigi is caught in a high-stakes game of tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors, except the trophy is a young man’s life,” Agnifilo said, adding that her team would fight the federal, New York and Pennsylvania charges that Mangione faces.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which is prosecuting the federal case, declined to comment.
Prosecutors have accused Mangione of taking a bus to New York City, waiting for Thompson outside his hotel, shooting him from behind and fleeing. The insurance executive was in town for an investor conference. The shooting was caught on surveillance footage, and it sparked a dayslong search for a perpetrator.
Law enforcement officials later arrested Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. After his arrest, they found a pistol, a letter addressed “to the Feds” and a notebook that detailed his “hostility” toward the health insurance industry and rich executives, according to charging documents.
The case has garnered international attention — and a devoted Mangione fan club. Many who are frustrated with America’s health care industry have expressed support for Mangione. His face now appears on T-shirts, candles and tote bags.
But prosecutors and members of law enforcement have fiercely condemned Thompson’s killing and support for his accused shooter. Earlier this month, Attorney General Pamela Bondi directed federal prosecutors in New York City to seek the death penalty against Mangione. She called Thompson’s killing a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination” and said in a press release that pursuing capital punishment aligns with President Donald Trump’s “agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
Mangione’s defense attorneys have objected to the death penalty and said Bondi broke procedure by publicly calling for capital punishment before he had even been indicted. They said the attorney general’s statement “corrupted the grand jury process.”
The death penalty is no longer pursued in state cases in New York. If convicted in his state case, Mangione faces the possibility of life in prison.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Tagged
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Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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