Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO case

Luigi Mangione has pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, admitting matter-of-factly that he trailed the executive to an investor conference in 2024 and gunned him down on a New York City street.

Mangione, 28, said he even used a ruse to glean information about the event, contacting the health insurance company ahead of time under the guise of being an investor at a multibillion-dollar firm.

“On the morning of December 4 2024, I shot Mr Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione told the court as Mr Thompson’s wife Paulette took several deep breaths and repeatedly wiped tears from her eyes.

A supporter put an arm around her and held her tight.

Mangione is set for sentencing on December 18.

When US district judge Margaret M Garnett asked whether he understood that he could spend the rest of his life in prison, Mangione answered neutrally: “Yes.”

Mr Thompson’s family later called the plea “an important step toward justice” and noted that Mangione still faces other cases, including a New York state murder prosecution.

“We will continue to seek the justice Brian deserves,” the relatives said in a statement issued through a spokesperson.

Mangione entered the plea at a hastily scheduled hearing in Manhattan federal court, resolving one of two cases against him in connection with Mr Thompson’s death.

Mangione’s lawyers are now seeking to have his separate New York state murder case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds.

“Mr Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson,” defence lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said outside court, arguing that her client should not face two prosecutions over a “single tragic event”.

Prosecutors did not recommend a sentencing break for Mangione or give him any other incentive to plead guilty, they and his lawyers said.

A defendant in a criminal case always has the option of pleading guilty without any such deal.

Nor did Mangione plead guilty to avoid a potential death sentence.

That possibility was taken off the table when a federal murder charge was thrown out this winter.

Surveillance video of the ambush showed a masked gunman shooting Mr Thompson, 50, from behind.

Police say “delay”, “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

That detail – and revelations that Mangione’s private writings lambasted health insurers as greedy, according to authorities – made the case a fulcrum for debate about the industry and made Mangione a cause celebre for some of its critics.

Mangione told the court on Friday that he pursued Mr Thompson “after years of enduring severe pain from a broken back and navigating the obstacles of the health insurance system”.

Mangione was never a UnitedHealthcare customer, according to police and the company.

A University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, he was arrested five days after the shooting, when he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

It is about 230 miles west of Manhattan.

Mr Thompson led one of the United States’ largest health insurers, but he was not well known outside the industry.

Trained as an accountant, he had worked at parent company UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became chief executive of its insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, in 2021.

He and his wife have two sons, who were in high school when their father was killed.

Both the federal and state cases could lead to a life prison sentence for Mangione.

A federal judge earlier this year threw out additional charges that could have exposed Mangione to a potential death penalty.

Mangione had complained about the prospect of two trials, telling a judge in February: “It’s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any common sense definition.”

Under New York law, a state prosecution could potentially be barred if the federal case is resolved first.

The state’s double jeopardy protections kick in if a jury has been sworn in in a prior prosecution, such as a federal case, or if that prosecution ends in a guilty plea.

Mangione’s cases involve different charges arising from the same course of conduct.

In a letter last month, state prosecutors objected to the possibility of a guilty plea in the federal case wiping out the state case.

Judge Garnett has delivered some setbacks to the defence, including ruling in January that prosecutors could use items collected from Mangione’s backpack during his arrest as evidence against him.

They included a 3D-printed pistol that investigators said matched the one used to kill Mr Thompson and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to kill an insurance executive.

In June, Mangione’s lawyers said they would pursue a psychiatric defence in the state case but reversed course a day later.

The defence, involving claims that he was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the killing, is not allowed in federal court.