Luigi Mangione has pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges in connection with the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the New York Times reported.
“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan,” Mr. Mangione told the judge Aug. 14. “I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death or bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal.”
Mr. Mangione told the court that years of severe back pain drove him to carry out the attack, according to the Times. He said he tracked down the location of UnitedHealth’s annual investor conference in part by contacting the company while posing as an investor, and that he shot Mr. Thompson with a gun he made using a 3D printer.
Judge Margaret Garnett accepted the plea and set sentencing for Dec. 18. Mr. Mangione faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, per the Times.
In January, Ms. Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge that would have made Mr. Mangione eligible for the death penalty, finding it was technically flawed.
Mr. Mangione still faces a separate state murder trial in Manhattan, where he has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges. That trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 8. His defense team has been pushing for a live broadcast of the proceedings, and in June withdrew a plan to mount a psychiatric defense.
The guilty plea closes one of the criminal cases against Mr. Mangione, but it could complicate or postpone the state murder trial, according to the Wall Street Journal. His defense team argues that trying him on the state charges would amount to being prosecuted twice for the same conduct. Karen Friedman Agnifilo, one of Mr. Mangione’s attorneys, said the defense plans to ask the state court to throw out the charges on double jeopardy grounds following Friday’s plea.
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