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By Jack Queen and Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Luigi Mangione, the person accused of fatally gunning down medical insurance govt Brian Thompson on a Manhattan avenue, pleaded not responsible on Monday to New York state homicide costs that model him a terrorist.
Mangione, 26, was escorted into Choose Gregory Carro’s Thirteenth-floor courtroom within the New York state legal courthouse in decrease Manhattan with a court docket officer on every arm, and a procession of a half dozen officers following him. He was in handcuffs and shackles, and wore a burgundy sweater over a white-collared shirt.
Mangione leaned right into a microphone and stated “not responsible” when Carro requested how he pleaded to the 11-count indictment charging him with homicide as an act of terrorism and weapons offenses.
If convicted, he faces a most sentence of life in jail with out the potential of parole.
Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH)’s insurance coverage unit UnitedHealthcare, was shot useless on Dec. 4 exterior a lodge in midtown Manhattan the place the corporate was gathering for an investor convention.
The brazen killing and ensuing five-day manhunt captivated People. Whereas public officers have condemned the killing, some People who decry the steep prices of healthcare and insurance coverage firms’ energy to disclaim paying for some medical remedies have feted Mangione as a folks hero.
Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 9. After deciding final week to not battle extradition, he was transferred to New York, the place he was led off a helicopter in decrease Manhattan by a big phalanx of cops and New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams.
That spectacle and different statements by public officers recommend Mangione might not have the ability to get a good trial, his lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo stated at Monday’s listening to.
“They’re treating him like he’s some form of political fodder, some form of spectacle,” Agnifilo stated. “He isn’t a logo, he’s somebody who’s afforded a proper to a good trial.”
A number of dozen individuals gathered exterior the courthouse in freezing temperatures to specific assist for Mangione and anger at healthcare firms.
One particular person held an indication with the phrases “DENY, DEFEND, DEPOSE,” a phrase that echoes ways some accuse insurers of utilizing to keep away from paying out claims. Authorities say the phrases “deny,” “delay,” and “depose” had been discovered written on shell casings on the crime scene.
Kara Hay, a 42-year-old schoolteacher, stated she believed it was incorrect for Mangione to be charged with terrorism.
“Taking pictures one CEO doesn’t make him a terrorist, and I don’t really feel terrorized,” stated Hay, who held an indication studying “harmless till confirmed responsible.”
After the 30-minute listening to, officers as soon as once more shackled Mangione and led him out of the courtroom. He’s being held on the Metropolitan Detention Heart, a federal lockup in Brooklyn.
Carro set Mangione’s subsequent court docket look for Feb. 21.
DUAL STATE, FEDERAL CASES
Monday’s arraignment was the second court docket look in New York for Mangione, who additionally faces a four-count federal legal criticism charging him with stalking and killing Thompson.
He has not but been requested to enter a plea in that case. U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose Katharine Parker ordered Mangione detained at a Dec. 19 listening to in Manhattan federal court docket.
The federal costs would make him eligible for the dying penalty, ought to the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Manhattan determine to pursue it.
The separate federal and state circumstances will proceed in parallel. The state case is at present anticipated to go to trial first, federal prosecutors stated.
On the listening to, Friedman Agnifilo stated it was tough to defend her shopper in twin state and federal circumstances.
“He’s being handled like a human ping-pong ball between these two jurisdictions,” Friedman Agnifilo stated.
She additionally stated the Manhattan District Lawyer’s workplace, which introduced the fees, has not handed over any proof to the protection to assist put together for trial, a course of often known as discovery. A prosecutor responded that the workplace would start handing over proof quickly.
In accordance with the federal legal criticism, the police who arrested Mangione discovered a pocket book that contained a number of handwritten pages that “specific hostility in the direction of the medical insurance business and rich executives specifically.”
A pocket book entry dated Oct. 22 allegedly described an intent to “wack” the chief govt of an insurance coverage firm at its investor convention.
