By Julio-Cesar Chavez, Jonathan Allen and Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The suspect within the killing of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:) govt Brian Thompson is being charged with federal homicide and stalking crimes, in line with a court docket doc filed on Thursday, alongside state homicide and terrorism expenses beforehand introduced by New York prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are charging Luigi Mangione, 26, with the federal crime of homicide utilizing a firearm, two expenses of stalking and an extra firearms offense, in line with a felony grievance. Prosecutors say that Mangione “traveled in interstate commerce” by taking a bus from Atlanta to New York earlier than Thompson’s killing, and so have jurisdiction.
Mangione was transferred into the custody of New York Metropolis police earlier on Thursday after he waived his proper to extradition proceedings at a court docket listening to in Pennsylvania, the state the place he was arrested following a five-day manhunt.
In accordance with the grievance, a pocket book Altoona police present in Mangione’s possession contained a number of handwritten pages that “categorical hostility in direction of the medical health insurance trade and rich executives particularly.” A pocket book entry dated Oct. 22 described an intent to “wack” the chief govt of an insurance coverage firm at its investor convention.
A grand jury in New York has indicted Mangione on 11 counts, together with first-degree homicide and homicide as an act of terrorism. Mangione has been in jail since his arrest and has not but entered a plea. His New York protection lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has stated Mangione has been “overcharged” and that he would combat the fees in court docket.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 9, 5 days after Thompson was fatally shot exterior a Manhattan resort earlier than an organization convention in what law-enforcement officers have referred to as a premeditated assassination.
Whereas the killing of Thompson has been broadly condemned, Mangione has been feted as a people hero by some People who decry the steep prices of healthcare and the ability that insurance coverage firms should deny paying for some medical remedies. A small crowd of supporters stood exterior the courthouse, some waving indicators that condemned the medical health insurance trade.
Federal expenses probably permit prosecutors to pursue the loss of life penalty, which has been outlawed in New York for many years.
Mangione is because of make an preliminary court docket look on the federal expenses earlier than U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose Katharine Parker in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon.
“The federal authorities’s reported determination to pile on high of an already overcharged first-degree homicide and state terror case is extremely uncommon and raises severe constitutional and statutory double jeopardy issues,” Mangione’s lawyer Friedman Agnifilo stated in an announcement. “We’re able to combat these expenses in no matter court docket they’re introduced.”
In Pennsylvania, police stated Mangione had a self-assembled 9mm handgun in his backpack and a selfmade silencer when he was arrested after being noticed at a McDonald’s (NYSE:) restaurant. The handgun resembled the weapon used to kill Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the biggest U.S. well being insurer.
Mangione, a Maryland native who had lived in Hawaii, additionally had a number of pretend identification paperwork, together with a pretend New Jersey ID that was used to test right into a Manhattan hostel days earlier than Thompson’s capturing, police stated.
In Pennsylvania, Mangione has been charged with forgery and illegally possessing an unlicensed gun.
On the Blair County courthouse on Thursday morning, Mangione, showing in an orange jail jumpsuit, had a preliminary listening to for the Pennsylvania expenses, instantly adopted by a second on New York’s extradition request. The Pennsylvania prosecutors informed the court docket that they had agreed to pause the Pennsylvania proceedings till after the conclusion of the New York prosecution.
Mangione spoke solely briefly on the extradition listening to, saying he understood his rights and telling Choose David Consiglio he consented to give up to New York police.
Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg’s workplace is accusing Mangione of an act of terrorism beneath New York regulation as a result of Thompson’s killing was meant to intimidate or coerce civilians or “affect the insurance policies of a unit of presidency.”
