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Luigi Mangione admitted to the cold-blooded killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, pleading guilty Friday to federal stalking charges, as the slain executive’s widow cried silently in the courtroom gallery.
Mangione, 28, drew glares from Thompson’s relatives as he walked into the Manhattan federal courtroom with his hands uncuffed behind his back, but his ankles shackled, wearing a beige prison jumpsuit with a long-sleeved white shirt rolled up to his elbows.
Several of Thompson’s relatives, including his widow, sat in the second row of the courtroom, eyed the accused killer as he strolled in, took a seat and intently read, and then signed, a document with lawyers.
“Mr. Mangione is prepared to plead guilty to the indictment at this time,” defense attorney Karen Agnifilo told the judge.
He had been set to begin his federal court trial in January on the two counts — interstate stalking resulting in death and stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death — which each carry a potential maximum sentence of life in prison.
Mangione is still charged with murder in the second-degree, criminal possession of a forged instrument, also in the second-degree, and multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon in state court.
Jury selection for his state trial is set to kick off on Sept. 8.
US District Judge Margaret Garnett warned Mangione on Friday that his potential sentence in the state case could come consecutively.
Mangione has attracted a fawning army of unhinged fangirls since the December 2024 killing outside a Manhattan hotel.
The Maryland prep school alum was charged with stalking Thompson, 50, a father of two, leading to his violent death on a Midtown sidewalk. He was not charged with murder in the federal case.
He then led authorities on a dramatic five-day manhunt before local cops in Altoona, Pa. finally nabbed him while he was eating breakfast at a local McDonald’s.
Prosecutors say Mangione penned a “manifesto” detailing his ax to grind with the insurance industry, and explaining his motive to kill the UnitedHealthcare CEO outside the company’s annual investor conference was a way to “rebel against the deadly, greed-fueled health insurance cartel.”
Here’s the latest on accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione’s murder trial
They say he plotted the shocking public murder to make a violent political statement, leaving behind bullet casings at the scene with the words “delay” and “deny” etched into them, a nod to language insurers allegedly use to dodge paying out customers’ claims.
He allegedly wrote that other high-level executives of insurance providers were fair game because the industry “literally extracts human life force for money.”
Mangione’s anti-corporate views have elevated him to a folk hero in extreme leftist circles as political violence has become increasingly accepted as a twisted means to their desired end.
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