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TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty
Luigi Mangione has been indicted on four federal charges in the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
On Wednesday, April 17, a federal grand jury indicted Mangione, 26, of two counts of stalking, one count of murder through use of a firearm and a firearms offense for an allegation that he used a silencer, per NBC News.
Mangione was previously indicted on multiple state charges in New York and Pennsylvania. He was arrested on Dec. 9 on suspicion of committing the crime at a McDonald’s in rural Altoona, Penn., with an alleged manifesto and silencer on his person. Thompson, 50, was killed outside of the Hilton in Midtown Manhattan five days earlier on Dec. 4, 2024.
The federal charge of murder with a firearm carries a maximum sentence of the death penalty, if convicted. Attorney General Pam Bondi already stated her intent to seek the death penalty, per an April 1 press release. Bondi previously called the shooting of Thompson a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination.”
Mangione’s defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifolo, has already responded that she will be fighting against the death penalty. She argued that Bondi’s statements and the charges “prejudiced the grand jury process”, per ABC News.
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The crime continues to grip the nation as Americans continue to express frustration with the state of the healthcare system and health insurance companies. Mangione is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering and computer science programs with both a bachelor’s and master’s degree. He allegedly struggled with a major spinal column injury and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
Mangione has received an outpouring of prison correspondence and more than $900,000 donations to his legal defense fund, per the New York Times.
He is currently being held in Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.
