New York judge tosses terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, lets murder count stand

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NEW YORK (AP) — 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 released as Mangione appeared in court, 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.

The judge also said there was insufficient evidence that Mangione intended to influence or affect government policy by intimidation or coercion — another element of the terrorism charges — and noted that federal prosecutors opted not to charge Mangione with terrorism offenses even though the federal terrorism statute served as a model for the state law.

But in keeping the second-degree murder charge, Carro ruled there was sufficient evidence that Mangione “murdered Brian Thompson in a premeditated and calculated execution.”

Mangione's lawyers did not comment after the hearing.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office issued a brief statement, 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. Wearing beige prison clothes, he was handcuffed and his ankles were shackled as police officers escorted him into and out of the courtroom. He was mostly silent, only talking with his lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo. While leaving the courtroom, he appeared in good spirits and raised his eyebrow at the gallery crowd.

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 Carro rejected that argument, saying it would be premature to make such a determination.

Bragg'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 said 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.”

Bragg'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.”

In Tuesday's ruling, Carro noted that terrorism “has been famously difficult to define.” He was critical of state prosecutors for emphasizing the phrase “revolutionary anarchism” in Mangione's diary when they accused him of intending to influence government by intimidation or coercion.

“Not only does this stretch the import of a two-word phrase beyond what it can carry, but it ignores other, more explicit excerpts from defendant’s writings in which he states that his goal is to spread a ‘message’ and ‘win public support’ about ‘everything wrong with our health system,’” the judge wrote.

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Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.