Luigi Mangione, the man accused of brazenly killing a healthcare CEO on the streets of Manhattan, is poised to accept a deal with prosecutors to settle the federal stalking charges against him, according to The Associated Press and other outlets.
He is scheduled to appear in court Friday to discuss the details, which are not yet publicly known. The deal would come just weeks ahead of his state murder trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 8.
The plea is not finalized, the AP noted, and Mangione could change his mind.
But if it does come together, it will likely delay his state trial.
The 28-year-old has alleged the federal and state cases together amount to unconstitutional double jeopardy, in which a person is prosecuted twice for the same crime. He blurted out during a court hearing earlier this year: “Same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any common-sense definition.”
Mangione’s high-powered legal team may petition New York Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro to dismiss the state case if he accepts a federal plea deal. New York has special protections against double jeopardy, meaning that a resolution to the federal case before Sept. 8 could prevent the state trial from happening.
But it is not clear how Carro would rule. Any decision he reaches would likely be appealed, requiring the state trial to be pushed back.
“Jeopardy analysis is very complicated,” Seth Zuckerman, a criminal defense attorney and former New York City prosecutor, told JS. “It really requires a detailed analysis of the statute that he’s charged with in federal court and the statute that he’s charged with in state court to see if any of the elements overlap.”
“Five people could read it and you could get five different opinions,” he said. “So obviously, I think it’s a colorable argument [and] whether it ends up winning in both — you know, in front of Judge Carro and in the appellate division — is anyone’s guess.”
One unnamed senior Justice Department official denied that prosecutors had a deal with Mangione, Fox News reported Thursday.
UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson was shot dead in December 2024 outside of the New York City hotel where the company he led was set to hold an annual conference.
Video of the incident showed a figure dressed in dark colors with a backpack step out behind Thompson, raise his arm and fire, troubleshooting on the fly as his weapon appeared to malfunction. The figure then fled as Thompson lay crumpled on the sidewalk.
Thompson’s targeted killing sparked widespread media coverage and discussion on the enormous cost of healthcare in America.
Mangione was spotted at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s five days later, when another customer thought he resembled photos of a person of interest distributed by investigators in New York. The customer urged employees to call the police, who arrived to question Mangione as he finished his breakfast. They took him into custody after patting him down and having a brief look inside his backpack.
New York state prosecutors then announced they were filing murder charges against Mangione, followed by charges from federal prosecutors.
But a federal murder charge was among several dismissed by U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett earlier this year, putting capital punishment out of prosecutors’ reach. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi had said she wanted to pursue the death penalty.
Garnett left just two stalking-related charges in the federal case. The trial had been set to begin Jan. 5.
Mangione appeared in New York state court earlier this week for what was supposed to be the last hearing in that case before the trial, with the judge instructing lawyers for both sides to work together on a jury questionnaire.