Luigi Mangione will face a June 8 murder trial in a New York state court for the fatal shooting of UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson, three months before he is slated to be tried by federal prosecutors for the same crime, a judge ruled.
Both state and federal authorities are prosecuting Mangione for the December 2024 slaying of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last month asked New York Judge Gregory Carro to schedule Mangione’s state trial ahead of the federal proceeding set to begin on Sept. 8 with jury selection, followed by opening statements on Oct. 13.
At a hearing Friday, Carro set the June 8 date, saying US prosecutors “reneged” on an agreement to let the state trial proceed first. That prompted fierce objections by lawyers for Mangione, who said they won’t be ready in time. The defense team also said their client now faces the unconstitutional threat of double jeopardy, or being tried twice for the same crime.
As court officers led a shackled Mangione out after the hearing, he turned and shouted: “It’s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any common sense definition!”
Amid the outburst, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo urged him to stay silent.
Carro’s hearing came amid weeks of legal jousting over whether federal or state prosecutors would get to try Mangione first in a case that has riveted the nation. Mangione has become an antihero to supporters who say he expressed their outrage at the health-care system, while New York prosecutors say he planned a brutal assassination.
The judge allowed that he may push the state trial to Sept. 8 if federal prosecutors appeal a Jan. 30 ruling by US District Judge Margaret Garnett. She dismissed a murder count that could have exposed Mangione to the death penalty, if he’s convicted. She ruled that Mangione must still face trial on two charges of stalking resulting in death. If he is convicted on those counts, he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
At Friday’s hearing, defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo repeatedly said the June trial date places an unfair burden on Mangione’s team to prepare for both the federal and state trials at the same time. She said lawyers will begin working in April on written questionnaires for hundreds of potential federal jurors.
“Mr. Mangione is being put in an untenable situation because this a tug of war between two different prosecution offices,” she said. “New York State has a double jeopardy law for a reason, and it is utterly unfair that they are trying to get two bites of the apple to try to prosecute this young man.”
Bragg’s office has pushed for the state case to go first, arguing that his office and the New York Police Department investigated the crime and federal prosecutors only became involved two weeks after Thompson’s murder.
Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann argued that Thompson’s family wanted the state case to proceed first. The prosecutor said Mangione’s lawyers want to void the state case by going to trial in federal court first.
“They’re seeking to deprive the prosecuting agency on a local crime, a murder that happened in Midtown on our streets of a guest to our city,” Seidemann said. “This has been the reason for their delays, hoping that if it goes after the federal case,” that New York law would prohibit Bragg’s office from prosecuting Mangione as well, he said.
When Friedman Agnifilo said the defense has “been working around the clock in earnest in both cases,” Carro responded: “You’ve done a great job. So be ready on June 8. That’s it.”
In December, Carro held a seven-day hearing over whether he should exclude key evidence, including a backpack seized by police when Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after Thompson was shot as he walked to speak at an investor’s conference in New York City.
Prosecutors have said they found strong evidence tying Mangione, 27, to the murder, including a 9-millimeter handgun, a silencer, a loaded gun magazine and a diary.
Bragg’s office submitted excerpts from Mangione’s diary they say are evidence of his intent, including an assertion that Thompson “had it coming.”
“What do you do?” Mangione wrote in a journal entry on Oct. 22, 2024, according to prosecutors. “You wack the CEO at the annual bean-counter convention.”
Carro has said he expects to issue a ruling in May on the motion to suppress evidence.
This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.