Luigi Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty on Friday in federal court in Manhattan to two counts of stalking UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson with intent to kill him, admitting in a prepared courtroom statement that he shot Thompson in Manhattan and that Thompson died. US District Judge Margaret Garnett scheduled sentencing for December 18 and said Mangione faces a maximum of life in prison on each count.
Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
Luigi Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty on Friday in federal court in Manhattan to two counts of stalking UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson with intent to kill him, admitting in a prepared courtroom statement that he shot Thompson in Manhattan and that Thompson died. US District Judge Margaret Garnett scheduled sentencing for December 18 and said Mangione faces a maximum of life in prison on each count.
Thompson, 50, was shot dead on December 4, 2024, outside a hotel in Manhattan where an investor conference was taking place. Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania following a five-day manhunt.
In his courtroom statement, Mangione said he emailed UnitedHealthcare leadership pretending to be an investor managing more than $50 billion in assets in order to obtain details of the 2024 investor conference, and received a response within an hour. He said he then used a 3-D printer to make part of a gun and traveled to New York with the intent of killing Thompson. He also said he had navigated obstacles with his own insurance after suffering a broken back, without providing further details.
Mangione had pleaded not guilty in April 2025 to federal murder, weapons, and stalking charges. In January 2026, Judge Garnett dismissed the murder and weapons charges on legal grounds in a ruling that also eliminated the possibility of the death penalty in the federal case.
Separately, Mangione pleaded not guilty in December 2024 to state charges including terrorism, murder, weapons, and forgery brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. A judge dismissed the terrorism charges in September 2025. A state trial is scheduled for September 8 before Justice Gregory Carro in Manhattan, where a conviction on second-degree murder would carry a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Following Friday's federal guilty plea, Mangione's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the state charges, arguing that proceeding to trial on the same conduct would violate New York's double jeopardy law and his due process rights under the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution.
- The source does not state whether Judge Garnett ruled on Mangione's motion to dismiss the state charges or set a hearing date for it.
- The source does not state what specific legal technicalities led Judge Garnett to dismiss the federal murder and weapons charges in January 2026.
- The source does not state the details of Mangione's insurance difficulties following his broken back beyond his own brief courtroom reference to them.
- The source does not state whether Mangione entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors or what, if any, terms were negotiated.
- The source does not state how New York courts have previously applied the double jeopardy exception for charges with different statutory elements but overlapping intent requirements.
- The source text supplied appears truncated; some material may be missing.
Read the original at The Jerusalem Post