Nearly two years after Brian Thompson was gunned down on a Manhattan sidewalk, Luigi Mangione finally said the words the fallen CEO’s family had waited to hear: “I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he died.” His confession landed as Thompson’s widow cried silently nearby.
Mangione, 28, entered the guilty plea Friday in Manhattan federal court on two federal stalking charges: interstate stalking resulting in death and stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death. He read from a handwritten letter, his expression solemn and his emotions close to the surface.
The courtroom atmosphere was tense. Thompson’s relatives, including his widow, sat in the second row, their eyes locked on the Maryland prep school graduate as he walked in wearing a beige prison jumpsuit with a long-sleeved white shirt rolled to his elbows. His hands were uncuffed, but his ankles stayed shackled.
Defense attorney Karen Agnifilo told Judge Margaret Garnett that her client was prepared to plead guilty. Mangione answered “yes” to a series of legal questions and nodded slightly when the judge explained that the maximum sentence on the table is life in prison.
In his written statement, Mangione detailed years of severe back pain and growing resentment toward the health insurance industry, according to his courtroom remarks. He told the court he posed as an investor at a firm managing $150 million in assets to obtain details about UnitedHealthcare’s 2024 conference in New York.
“Before traveling to New York, I used a 3-D printer to make a gun,” he said. “I equipped the gun with a silencer and a magazine.”
The federal case did not include a murder charge, but the state case against Mangione does. He still faces second-degree murder, criminal possession of a forged instrument, and multiple weapons counts, with jury selection scheduled for September 8.
His legal team confirmed they plan to file a motion arguing a state conviction would amount to double jeopardy following the federal plea. Judge Garnett warned him, however, that any state sentence could run consecutively.
Thompson, 50, a father of two, was killed outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024, just before the company’s annual investor conference. The shooting set off a five-day nationwide manhunt that ended when police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, arrested Mangione at a local McDonald’s.
Prosecutors have described the killing as a calculated act of violence meant to make a statement. Bullet casings found at the scene reportedly bore the words “delay” and “deny” — a reference to language insurers allegedly use to reject claims. In writings prosecutors have called a manifesto, Mangione framed his actions as an attempt to “rebel against the deadly, greed-fueled health insurance cartel.”
The case has turned Mangione into an unlikely figure of fascination, drawing a devoted following of supporters who see him as a symbol of rebellion against corporate power. Outside the courthouse Friday, one man rode past screaming, “America loves Luigi!”
Sentencing on the federal charges is set for December 18, where prosecutors are expected to push for the maximum penalty. As the courtroom emptied and both sides went their separate ways, the question hung in the air: will December’s hearing finally close this chapter — or just open another?
