Luigi Mangione admitted in court that he fatally wounded the director of a health insurance company and pleaded guilty to two federal counts of stalking the director with intent to kill.
The guilty plea means there will be no federal trial in the closely watched murder case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The crime was condemned by public officials but has become a symbol of Americans' frustration with the health insurance industry's practices. The plea could also allow Mangione to ask for the state's murder charges to be dismissed and for the upcoming trial in that case to be postponed, Reuters reports.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett told Mangione that if he pleads guilty, he could face a maximum sentence of life in prison on each count. Garnett scheduled sentencing for Dec. 18.
Mangione's lawyer, Karen Friedman Anjifilo, said that no plea agreement had been reached with the prosecution.
Thompson ran the insurance arm of UnitedHealth Group before he was shot and killed in the early morning hours of Dec. 4, 2024, outside a hotel where an investor conference was being held. Thompson's widow sat in the front row of the courtroom with other members of his family.
Mangione, 28, told the court that he researched details of UnitedHealthcare's annual investor conference in December 2024 after suffering a spinal fracture and experiencing health insurance system problems. He said he then used a 3D printer to make a gun part and traveled to New York with the intention of killing Thompson, Reuters reported.
"I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he passed away," Mangione said.
No possibility of death penalty
Explicit footage of the murder and a five-day search for the suspect made the case a major media topic and a sensation on social media. Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania.
He previously pleaded not guilty in April 2025 to charges of murder, weapons violations, and surveillance brought against him by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
In a surprise decision in January 2026, Garnett dismissed the murder and weapons charges on a legal technicality. That eliminated the possibility of Mangione being sentenced to death in federal court, though he still faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted on the remaining charges.
The federal trial was last scheduled for January.
Mangione separately pleaded not guilty in December 2024 to state charges of terrorism, murder, weapons violations, and forgery brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The terrorism charges were dismissed by a judge in September 2025.
The trial in the case is scheduled for September 8 before Judge Gregory Carr in Manhattan. If convicted of second-degree murder, Mangione faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, Reuters reminds.
A guilty plea in the federal case could allow Mangione to seek dismissal of the murder charge under New York's double jeopardy law, which protects people from being tried twice for the same act.
Bragg's prosecution would oppose this, arguing that the murder charge is legally distinct from federal charges. The losing party would likely request an expedited appeal.
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