- By Priyanka Koul
- Mon, 23 Dec 2024 05:22 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Murder Suspect Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealth Group Chief Executive Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street, is set to be arraigned on Monday on state murder charges, which label him a terrorist.
At the hearing in New York State Court in Manhattan, Mangione is expected to enter a plea to an 11-count indictment, which includes three murder charges, one of which is murder as an act of terrorism. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Mangione's lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, declined to comment.
This will be Mangione’s second court appearance in New York since his arrest at a fast-food restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the brazen, pre-dawn killing of Thompson on 4 December outside a midtown Manhattan hotel where his company was hosting an investor conference.
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Mangione also faces a four-count federal criminal complaint accusing him of stalking and killing Thompson. He has not yet been asked to enter a plea to those charges.US Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker ordered Mangione to remain in custody during a 19 December hearing on those charges.
The federal charges could make him eligible for the death penalty if the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan decides to pursue it.
The state and federal cases will proceed in parallel, with the state case currently expected to go to trial first, according to federal prosecutors.
At the federal court hearing, Friedman Agnifilo argued that the two sets of charges appeared to rely on conflicting theories. The state charges allege that Mangione acted with the intent to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population" and influence policy, while the federal charges accuse him of stalking and targeting an individual.
Friedman Agnifilo described the two cases as entirely different and requested clarification from prosecutors about whether both would proceed. Dominic Gentile, a federal prosecutor, stated that the initial hearing was not the appropriate time to address those legal arguments.
According to the federal criminal complaint, police discovered a notebook in Mangione's possession upon his arrest. The notebook reportedly contained several handwritten entries expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives.
One entry, dated 22 October, allegedly outlined an intent to "wack" the chief executive of an insurance company at its investor conference.
While Thompson’s killing has been widely condemned, Mangione has gained a degree of notoriety as a folk hero among some Americans who criticise the high costs of healthcare and the influence of insurance companies in denying medical treatments.
(Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by Jagran English and has been published through syndicated feed by Reuters.)