By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Related Press
NEW YORK (AP) — The person accused of fatally capturing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare pleaded not responsible on Monday to state homicide and terror costs whereas his lawyer 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 courtroom when he leaned over to a microphone to enter his plea. The Manhattan district lawyer charged him final week with a number of counts of homicide, together with homicide as an act of terrorism, in a state case that may run alongside his federal prosecution.
His preliminary look in New York’s state trial courtroom was preempted by federal prosecutors bringing their very own costs over the capturing. The federal costs may carry the opportunity of the loss of life penalty, whereas the utmost sentence for the state costs is life in jail with out parole.
Prosecutors have mentioned the 2 instances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state costs anticipated to go to trial first.
Considered one of Mangione’s attorneys advised a decide 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 am very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial,” mentioned Karen Friedman Agnifilo.
Town’s mayor and high police official 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.
“I wanted to look him in the eye and say you carried out this terroristic act in my city — the city that the people of New York love,” the mayor advised a neighborhood TV station.
Friedman Agnifilo mentioned police turned Mangione’s return to New York right into a choreographed spectacle.
“He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest stage perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career. It was absolutely unnecessary,” she mentioned.
His lawyer additionally accused federal and state prosecutors of advancing conflicting authorized theories, calling their method complicated and extremely uncommon. “He is being treated like a human pingpong ball between warring jurisdictions here,” she mentioned Monday.
State trial courtroom Decide Gregory Carro mentioned he has little management over what occurs exterior the courtroom, however can assure Mangione will obtain a good trial.
Authorities say Mangione gunned down Brian 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 capturing and a pretend ID, police mentioned. He additionally was carrying a pocket book expressing hostility towards the medical health insurance business and particularly rich executives, in accordance with federal prosecutors.
At a information convention final week, Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg mentioned the applying of the terrorism regulation mirrored the severity of a “frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.”
“In its most basic terms, this was a killing that was intended 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.
Throughout his courtroom look Monday, he smiled at instances when speaking along with his attorneys and stretched his proper hand after an officer eliminated his cuffs.
Exterior the courthouse, a couple of dozen supporters chanted, “Free Luigi,” over the blare of a trumpet.
Natalie Monarrez, a 55-year-old Staten Island resident, mentioned she joined the demonstration as a result of she misplaced each her mom and her life financial savings because of denied insurance coverage claims.
“As extreme as it was, it jolted the conversation that we need to deal with this issue,” she mentioned of the capturing. “Enough is enough, people are fed up.”
An Ivy-league graduate from a outstanding Maryland household, Mangione appeared to have reduce himself off from household and associates in current months. He posted ceaselessly in on-line boards about his struggles with again ache. He was by no means a UnitedHealthcare shopper, in accordance with the insurer.
Thompson, a married father of two high-schoolers, had labored on the large 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 acquired a spike in threats.
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