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In a surprise hearing, attorneys for Luigi Mangione told a judge Thursday that he will no longer be able to plead guilty to a murder charge in the slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The reversal came a day after Mangione’s attorneys told Judge Gregory Carro that they plan to continue to defend themselves against allegations that the 28-year-old Ivy League graduate was mentally disturbed at the time of Dec.’s slaying. 4, 2024.
A message seeking comment was left for a spokesperson for Mangione’s lawyers. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
Mangione’s lawyers were facing a Thursday deadline to provide prosecutors with information supporting the air interference claim.
In another case, Carro revoked his order to unseal the transcripts and other contents of a secret court hearing on the matter on June 3, citing the defense’s ruling. But by the time he was in power, copies of the document had been given to at least some members of the media.
It had no further details about the emotional disturbance claim.
A New York judge has dismissed a murder charge against Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024. US District Judge Margaret Garnett found the case flawed. Mangione still faces stalking and firearms charges, as well as another federal murder charge.
If Mangione had prevailed on an extreme mental disorder defense, he would have admitted to killing Thompson but argued that he did so because of mitigating circumstances. It wouldn’t make him free, but it could lead to him being put in jail.
If the judge accepts the defense, he is responsible for convicting the defendant of murder, punishable by up to 25 years in prison, instead of murder, which may carry a life sentence.
Defense ‘respectfully withdraws’
In a letter to Carro on Thursday, Mangione’s attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said the defendants’ lawyers are “respectfully withdrawing” their notice under New York’s mental health protection law “at this time.”
Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to federal and state charges. His state trial is scheduled to begin on September 8. His federal trial, which includes stalking charges, will begin on October 13.
In court Wednesday, Friedman Agnifilo challenged Carro’s decision to open material related to the mental health defense, saying it would “disrupt his defense on the same facts” in his federal case, where the defense of extreme emotional distress is not allowed.
The emotional disturbance defense is not the same as the not guilty by reason of insanity defense, which would allow a defendant to go to a mental institution instead of jail.
Thompson, 50, was killed on his way to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video shows a masked gunman shooting him in the back.
Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., about 370 miles west of Manhattan.
At a hearing last month, Carro ruled that a gun and a notebook that prosecutors said linked Mangione to the killing could be used as evidence against him.
The gun, a 3D-printed gun, is identical to the one used to kill Thompson, prosecutors said.
