Judge tosses terrorism charges against suspect in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO

NEW YORK — A judge on Tuesday dismissed terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione in New York state’s case over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, but he kept the state’s second-degree murder charges against him.

In a written decision, Judge Gregory Carro said that although there is no doubt that the killing was not an ordinary street crime, New York law doesn’t consider something terrorism simply because it was motivated by ideology.

“While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the health care industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population,’ and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal,” Carro wrote.

Prosecutors issued a statement after the hearing saying, “We respect the Court’s decision and will proceed on the remaining nine counts.”

The judge scheduled pretrial hearings in the case for Dec. 1, which is days before Mangione is next due in court in the federal case against him.

It was Mangione’s first court appearance in the state case since February, and he wore beige prison clothes, handcuffs and shackles. The 27-year-old Ivy League graduate has attracted a cult following as a stand-in for frustrations with the health insurance industry. Supporters of Mangione took up three rows in the courtroom gallery. As was the case at his last hearing, a few dozen supporters, mostly women, showed up to Tuesday’s proceedings. Some were dressed in green — the color the Mario Bros. video game character Luigi wears — as a symbol of solidarity, and one woman sported a “FREE LUIGI” T-shirt.

Outside, some supporters who gathered across the street from the courthouse cheered and clapped as news of the dropped terrorism charges spread.

Mangione earlier pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism, in the Dec. 4, 2024, killing. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as he arrived for an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione was arrested five days later after he was spotted eating breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City. Since then, he has been held at the same Brooklyn federal jail where Sean “Diddy” Combs is locked up.

Mangione’s lawyers argued that the New York case and a parallel federal death penalty prosecution amounted to double jeopardy. But Judge Gregory Carro rejected that argument, saying it would be premature to make such a determination.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office contended that there are no double jeopardy issues because neither of Mangione’s cases has gone to trial and because the state and federal prosecutions involve different legal theories.

Mangione’s lawyers say the dueling cases have created a “legal quagmire” that makes it “legally and logistically impossible to defend against them simultaneously.”

The second-degree murder charge carries a potential penalty of 15 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 25 years. The federal charges allege that Mangione stalked Thompson and do not involve terrorism allegations.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in April that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office quoted extensively from Mangione’s handwritten diary in a court filing seeking to uphold his state murder charges. They highlighted his desire to kill an insurance honcho and his praise for Ted Kaczynski, the late terrorist known as the Unabomber.

In the writings, prosecutors said, Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and said killing an industry executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming.” They also cited a confession they say he penned “To the feds,” in which he wrote that “it had to be done.”

Mangione’s “intentions were obvious from his acts, but his writings serve to make those intentions explicit,” prosecutors said in the June filing. The writings, which they sometimes described as a manifesto, “convey one clear message: that the murder of Brian Thompson was intended to bring about revolutionary change to the healthcare industry.”