Towson native and former Gilman School valedictorian Luigi Mangione on Friday pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges in connection to the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan,” Mangione told the judge. “I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death or bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal.”
Mangione’s defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said her client has accepted “full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson” with his guilty plea.
“As Luigi explained in court today, he endured years of severe debilitating pain following a broken back, while struggling to navigate our healthcare and health insurance systems,” Agnifilo said during a press conference Friday. “Like the thousands of people who have reached out since this tragedy to share their own experiences, he believed that the system had failed him and destoryed his life.”
Mangione also faces New York state charges. Agnifilo said Mangione’s defense team has filed a motion in state court to dismiss those charges, which they argue violate New York’s double jeopardy laws.
Thompson was shot and killed UnitedHealthcare Investor Conference in Midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024. A nationwide manhunt ensued to find the gunman.
On Dec. 9, 2024, police arrested Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an employee at the restaurant recognized him from a CCTV camera image that had been widely shared by law enforcement.
Mangione was indicted on 11 New York state charges and four federal charges.
A New York district judge dismissed the firearms charge and federal murder charge, which would have had him possibly face the death penalty. Mangione still faced the two federal stalking charges, which he pleaded guilty to Friday.
A New York state judge dismissed two terror-related murder charges. Mangione still faces eight felony charges in New York state court, including second-degree murder, possession of a forged instrument (for an alleged fake driver’s license), and six counts of criminal posession of a weapon.
Mangione will be sentenced for the federal stalking charges in December. Federal prosecutors plan to seek the maximum sentence of life in prison.
