Luigi Mangione's state murder trial -- which had been set to begin on Sept. 8 -- is adjourned.
Michael Sisak, Associated Press Michael Sisak, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione's state murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which was slated to begin Sept. 8, has been postponed indefinitely as his lawyers seek to have the case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds following his guilty plea last week to federal charges.
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Judge Gregory Carro issued an order Monday canceling the trial and giving the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which is prosecuting the state case, until Oct. 9 to respond to the defense's double jeopardy claims. A hearing will be held on Dec. 10, Carro said, about a week before Mangione is scheduled to be sentenced in the federal case.
Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty Friday in Manhattan federal court to a pair of stalking charges and admitted trailing Thompson to UnitedHealth Group's investor conference and gunning him down outside a Manhattan hotel in 2024. Federal prosecutors said they would seek life in prison when Mangione is sentenced Dec. 18, though federal sentencing guidelines call for a term of 24 to 30 years.
"On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died," Mangione said.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty in the state case, which also carries the possibility of a life sentence.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said in a statement that it would fight efforts to end the state case, in part because Mangione's federal sentence isn't yet known.
Compared with federal law and that of other states, New York has uncommonly strong protections for defendants facing multiple prosecutions. A state prosecution can be barred if a federal case involving the same course of conduct or criminal transaction ends in a guilty plea or if a jury is sworn.
It will be up to Carro to decide if that applies to Mangione. However Carro rules, his decision will be subject to appeal.
Mangione pleaded guilty to federal charges that accused him of traveling across state lines by bus to stalk and kill Thompson and using means such as a cellphone, the internet, interstate highways and staying at a hostel that serves out-of-state customers while planning and carrying out the attack.
"The full range of conduct that comprises the stalking offense is coterminous with the conduct committed as part of the murder offense," Mangione's lawyers wrote in their double jeopardy filing.
That he traveled from out of state "to be at the crime scene at the time of the shooting does nothing to eliminate the stalking of Mr. Thompson from the acts constituting his murder," Mangione's lawyers wrote. "They are all part of the same criminal incident or criminal transaction."
Bragg's office contends that the state charges, including murder and firearms offenses, involve different legal elements and criminal conduct. In a letter last month, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann objected to the possibility of a federal guilty plea wiping out the state case.
Any guilty plea, Seidemann wrote, "must account for the seriousness of defendant's offenses" and for the state's interests in prosecuting Mangione, "including the sanctity of life principle that underpins the state homicide charges."
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Left: File photo: Luigi Mangione attends a December evidentiary hearing in the murder case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at the Manhattan Supreme Court in New York. His state murder trial has been postponed indefinitely. Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Michael Sisak, Associated Press Michael Sisak, Associated Press