Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the Manhattan attack that killed a UnitedHealth Group executive, will be transferred to New York to face murder charges after dropping his opposition to the measure in court on Thursday (19).
A judge in Blair County, Pennsylvania, ordered Mangione transferred to New York, where he was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder for shooting Brian Thompson. Mangione, 26, was taken from court in a caravan of police vehicles and will be transported to New York in a helicopter to face murder charges later on Thursday.
Mangione’s lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told the judge that his client, who appeared in an orange jumpsuit with handcuffs and his legs chained, no longer wanted to oppose extradition. “We now believe it is in my client’s best interest” to go to New York, he said.
Thompson, 50, was the chief executive of the company’s massive insurance unit. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thompson was about to enter a meeting with investors on Dec. 4 when Mangione hit him from behind with a 3D-printed 9-millimeter “ghost gun.”
The crime was recorded by a security camera, as were the killer’s subsequent movements as he fled the scene, according to police. A five-day manhunt ended with Mangione’s arrest at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, where a customer and employee recognized his photo from wanted posters, police said.
Last week, Mangione hired former Manhattan prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo to defend him in New York. She said in a statement that “we stand ready to fight these allegations in any court in which they are brought.”
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That includes possible federal charges, which she said would be added “on top of an already overloaded first-degree murder case.”
New York City prosecutors upgraded the case to first-degree murder, a charge reserved for “the most heinous conduct,” such as killing a police officer, serial killings or terrorism, Bragg said. Mangione also faces two counts of second-degree murder, several weapons charges and one count of possession of a counterfeit driver’s license.
“As alleged, this defendant boldly shot Mr. Thompson at close range on a Manhattan sidewalk,” Bragg said in a statement. “The state process will proceed in parallel with any federal process.”
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Bullet casings and a bullet found at the New York crime scene were engraved with the words “Deny,” “Depose” and “Delay,” prosecutors said, an apparent reference to insurance companies. health. When police arrested him, Mangione was carrying a manifesto denouncing the health care industry and a notebook discussing the targeted killing of a CEO, authorities said.
Before the transfer hearing, Mangione sat alone at the defense table and became animated at times as he read the report filed by police in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
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