EGN NEWS DESK
(NEW YORK) — The man accused of fatally taking pictures the CEO of UnitedHealthcare pleaded not responsible on Monday to state homicide and terror costs whereas his legal professional complained that feedback coming from New York’s mayor would make it robust to obtain a good trial.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was shackled and seated in a Manhattan court docket when he leaned over to a microphone to enter his plea. The Manhattan district legal professional charged him final week with a number of counts of homicide, together with homicide as an act of terrorism.
Mangione’s preliminary look in New York’s state trial court docket was preempted by federal prosecutors bringing their very own costs over the taking pictures. The federal costs may carry the potential of the demise penalty, whereas the utmost sentence for the state costs is life in jail with out parole.
Prosecutors have stated the 2 instances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state costs anticipated to go to trial first.
One of Mangione’s attorneys instructed a judge that authorities officers, together with New York Mayor Eric Adams, have turned Mangione right into a political pawn, robbing him of his rights as a defendant and tainting the jury pool.
“I’m very involved about my consumer’s proper to a good trial,” stated Karen Friedman Agnifilo.
Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stood amongst a throng of closely armed officers final Thursday when Mangione was flown to a Manhattan heliport and escorted up a pier after being extradited from Pennsylvania.
Friedman Agnifilo stated police turned Mangione’s return to New York right into a choreographed spectacle.
“He was on show for everybody to see within the largest stage perp stroll I’ve ever seen in my profession. It was completely pointless,” she stated.
In an announcement, Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus stated: “Critics can say all they need, however exhibiting as much as assist our legislation enforcement and sending the message to New Yorkers that violence and vitriol haven’t any place in our metropolis is who Mayor Eric Adams is to his core.”
“The cold-blooded assassination of Brian Thompson — a father of two — and the fear it infused on the streets of New York City for days has since been sickeningly glorified, shining a highlight on the darkest corners of the web,” Mamelak Altus stated.
Friedman Agnifilo additionally accused federal and state prosecutors of advancing conflicting authorized theories, calling their method complicated and extremely uncommon. “He is being handled like a human pingpong ball between warring jurisdictions right here,” she stated Monday.
State trial court docket Judge Gregory Carro stated he has little management over what occurs outdoors the courtroom, however can assure Mangione will obtain a good trial.
Authorities say Mangione gunned down Thompson as he was strolling to an investor convention in midtown Manhattan on the morning of Dec 4.
Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s after a five-day search, carrying a gun that matched the one used within the taking pictures and a faux ID, police stated. He additionally was carrying a pocket book expressing hostility towards the medical insurance trade and particularly rich executives, in line with federal prosecutors.
At a information convention final week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg stated the applying of the terrorism legislation mirrored the severity of a “horrifying, well-planned, focused homicide that was supposed to trigger shock and a focus and intimidation.”
“In its most simple phrases, this was a killing that was supposed to evoke terror,” he added.
Mangione is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside a number of different high-profile defendants, together with Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried.
During his court docket look Monday, he smiled at instances when speaking together with his attorneys and stretched his proper hand after an officer eliminated his cuffs.
Outside the courthouse, a number of dozen supporters chanted, “Free Luigi,” over the blare of a trumpet.
Natalie Monarrez, a 55-year-old Staten Island resident, stated she joined the demonstration as a result of she misplaced each her mom and her life financial savings on account of denied insurance coverage claims.
“As excessive because it was, it jolted the dialog that we have to take care of this difficulty,” she stated of the taking pictures. “Enough is sufficient, individuals are fed up.”
An Ivy-league graduate from a distinguished Maryland household, Mangione appeared to have lower himself off from household and mates in current months. He posted continuously in on-line boards about his struggles with again ache. He was by no means a UnitedHealthcare consumer, in line with the insurer.
Thompson, a married father of two high-schoolers, had labored on the big UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and have become CEO of its insurance coverage arm in 2021.
The killing has prompted some to voice their resentment at U.S. well being insurers, with Mangione serving as a stand-in for frustrations over protection denials and hefty medical payments. It additionally has despatched shockwaves via the company world, rattling executives who say they’ve obtained a spike in threats.
