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Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty on Friday, August 14, to two federal stalking counts over the murder of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson. The 28-year-old from Maryland entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett in Manhattan, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York said.
The counts are interstate stalking resulting in death and cyberstalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death. Each carries a maximum of life in prison. Garnett set sentencing for December 18.
In court, Mangione described how he found his target. He said he stalked Thompson and posed as an investor to obtain information about the conference where the executive was due to appear. He also told the court he used a 3-D printer to make the gun, then fitted it with a silencer and a magazine.
The federal case file sets out the surveillance that followed. Mangione arrived in New York more than a week before the shooting. He watched locations Thompson used, including the area around the hotel where Thompson was staying and the venue hosting UnitedHealthcare's investor conference. On the morning of December 4, 2024, he positioned himself near the venue and waited. At about 6:45 a.m. he approached Thompson from behind and shot him several times, then fled.
Thompson was 50 and the father of two. He was walking alone, hours before he was due to host the investor conference at a hotel. Police arrested Mangione five days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He was carrying a false driver's license he had used in New York City, and officers recovered a firearm and other evidence linking him to the killing.
"Today, Luigi Mangione admitted to stalking and murdering Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street in broad daylight," said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald.
The state case is now in question. Mangione's lawyers filed a motion the same day asking a New York judge to dismiss the state charges against him, including second-degree murder, on double jeopardy grounds. That trial is scheduled to begin next month. The Manhattan district attorney's office said it is prepared to litigate the defense motions and that its case is distinct.
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