The suspect within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is being charged with federal homicide and stalking crimes, in keeping with a court docket doc filed on Thursday, alongside state homicide and terrorism costs beforehand introduced by New York prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are charging Luigi Mangione, 26, with the federal crime of homicide utilizing a firearm, two costs of stalking and a cost of utilizing an unlawful gun silencer, in keeping with a legal criticism.
The criticism accused Mangione of spending months planning an assault pushed by his contempt for the medical health insurance business and rich company executives.
Mangione was transferred into the custody of New York Metropolis police earlier on Thursday after he waived his proper to extradition proceedings at a court docket listening to in Pennsylvania, the state the place he was arrested following a five-day manhunt.
Luigi Mangione now additionally faces a terrorism cost in New York, for what prosecutors say is the ‘brazen, focused and premeditated taking pictures’ of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Based on the federal criticism, a pocket book Altoona police present in Mangione’s possession contained a number of handwritten pages that “specific hostility in the direction of the medical health insurance business and rich executives specifically.” A pocket book entry dated Oct. 22 described an intent to “wack” the chief govt of an insurance coverage firm at its investor convention.
“This investor convention is a real windfall,” one entry discovered within the pocket book mentioned, in keeping with the criticism. “Most significantly — the message turns into self evident.”
Police additionally discovered a letter within the suspect’s possession addressed “To the Feds” that said: “I wasn’t working with anybody,” in keeping with the criticism.
“This was pretty trivial: Some elementary social engineering, primary CAD, quite a lot of endurance,” the letter mentioned, utilizing an abbreviation for computer-aided design.
Mangione has been ‘overcharged,’ lawyer says
Earlier this week, a grand jury in New York indicted Mangione on 11 counts of breaking state legislation, together with first-degree homicide and homicide as an act of terrorism. Mangione has been in custody since his arrest and has not but entered a plea. His New York defence lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has mentioned Mangione has been “overcharged” and that he would battle the costs in court docket.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pa., on Dec. 9, 5 days after Thompson was fatally shot outdoors a Manhattan resort earlier than an organization convention in what law-enforcement officers have referred to as a premeditated assassination.
Whereas the killing of Thompson has been broadly condemned, Mangione has been feted as a folks hero by some People who decry the steep prices of healthcare and the facility that insurance coverage firms should deny paying for some medical therapies.
Federal costs probably enable prosecutors to pursue the loss of life penalty, which has been abolished in New York for many years.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch referred to as any try and rationalize Luigi Mangione’s alleged actions ‘vile’ and ‘reckless.’ Her feedback got here at a press convention on Tuesday asserting Mangione’s indictment for homicide within the killing of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson.
Prosecutors say that Mangione “travelled in interstate commerce” by taking a bus from Atlanta to New York earlier than Thompson’s killing and in addition used his cellphone and the web to plan and perform his assault, and so have jurisdiction.
Mangione is because of make an preliminary court docket look on the federal costs earlier than U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Katharine Parker in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon.
“The federal authorities’s reported resolution to pile on prime of an already overcharged first-degree homicide and state terror case is extremely uncommon and raises critical constitutional and statutory double jeopardy considerations,” Mangione’s lawyer Friedman Agnifilo mentioned in an announcement. “We’re able to battle these costs in no matter court docket they’re introduced.”
Supporters crowd courthouse
In Pennsylvania, police mentioned Mangione had a self-assembled 9-mm handgun in his backpack and a selfmade silencer when he was arrested after being noticed at a McDonald’s restaurant. The handgun resembled the weapon used to kill Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the biggest U.S. well being insurer.
Mangione, a Maryland native who had lived in Hawaii, additionally had a number of pretend identification paperwork, together with a pretend New Jersey ID that was used to verify right into a Manhattan hostel days earlier than Thompson’s taking pictures, police mentioned.
In Pennsylvania, Mangione has been charged with forgery and illegally possessing an unlicensed gun.
On the Blair County courthouse on Thursday morning, Mangione, showing in an orange jail jumpsuit, had a preliminary listening to for the Pennsylvania costs, instantly adopted by a second on New York’s extradition request. A small crowd of supporters stood outdoors the courthouse, some waving indicators that condemned the medical health insurance business.
The Pennsylvania prosecutors informed the court docket they’d agreed to pause the Pennsylvania proceedings till after the conclusion of the New York prosecutions.
Former Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Gulluzzo says Luigi Mangione’s federal costs are ‘considerably uncommon’ because the suspect within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is already dealing with state costs. Gulluzzo explains the federal case might result in the loss of life penalty, but it surely may very well be a year-long course of.
Mangione spoke solely briefly on the extradition listening to, saying he understood his rights and telling Decide David Consiglio he consented to give up to New York police.
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s workplace is accusing Mangione of an act of terrorism underneath New York legislation as a result of Thompson’s killing was supposed to intimidate or coerce civilians or “affect the insurance policies of a unit of presidency.”
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