Suspect in killing of UnitedHealth government transferred to NYPD custody

By Julio-Cesar Chavez and Jonathan Allen

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Penn. (Reuters) -The suspect within the killing of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) government Brian Thompson was transferred into the New York Police Division custody on Thursday to face homicide fees after he waived his proper to extradition proceedings in a Pennsylvania courtroom listening to.

Luigi Mangione, 26, appeared in an orange jail jumpsuit on the Blair County courthouse, the place he consented to give up to the New York law enforcement officials who additionally attended the quick listening to. He departed the courthouse in a New York police automobile and was anticipated in Manhattan afterward Thursday.

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. Mangione has not but entered a plea. His New York protection lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has stated Mangione has been “overcharged” and that he would struggle the fees in courtroom.

He was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 9, 5 days after Thompson was fatally shot outdoors a Manhattan resort earlier than an organization convention in what law-enforcement officers have known as a premeditated assassination.

Whereas the killing of Thompson has been broadly condemned, Mangione has been feted as a people hero by some Individuals who decry the steep prices of healthcare and the facility that insurance coverage firms must deny paying for some medical therapies. A small crowd of supporters stood outdoors the courthouse, some waving indicators that condemned the medical health insurance business.

Late on Wednesday, the New York Occasions (NYSE:NYT) reported that Mangione would additionally face fees from federal prosecutors in Manhattan, citing unnamed folks conversant in the matter. It was not instantly clear what these fees can be.

Federal fees would doubtlessly permit prosecutors to pursue the loss of life penalty, which has been outlawed in New York for many years, in keeping with the report. A spokesperson for the U.S. legal professional’s workplace in Manhattan declined to remark. 

“The federal authorities’s reported resolution to pile on prime of an already overcharged first-degree homicide and state terror case is extremely uncommon and raises critical constitutional and statutory double jeopardy considerations,” Mangione’s lawyer Friedman Agnifilo stated in an announcement. “We’re able to struggle these fees in no matter courtroom they’re introduced.”

In Pennsylvania, police stated Mangione had a self-assembled 9mm handgun in his backpack and a do-it-yourself silencer when he was arrested after being noticed at a McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) 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 courthouse on Thursday, Mangione had a preliminary listening to for the Pennsylvania fees, instantly adopted by a second on New York’s extradition request. The Pennsylvania prosecutors advised the courtroom they’d 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 below 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.”