The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thomson reached a decisive turn on Friday as the suspect, Luigi Mangione, pleaded guilty to the fatal shooting. Mangione spoke at the Manhattan court, admitting that he “shot Brian Thompson and he died.”
Mangione pleaded guilty to the federal stalking charges after a judge dismissed the death-eligible firearms charges against him in January this year. With his plea, his lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo argued for the dismissal of the murder charges citing New York’s double jeopardy law.
Luigi Mangione’s sentencing is now set for a separate hearing on December 18, 2026.
What Luigi Mangione Said In Court
“I knew what I was doing was illegal,” Mangione told the judge. His attorney also backed up the claim as she announced the decision to plead guilty before Mangione himself spoke. Karen Friedman Agnifilo said that Mangione accepted “full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson.”
“Today is a solemn and significant day. With today’s guilty plea, Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson arising from the events of December 4, 2024, outside of the UnitedHealthcare investor conference here in Midtown Manhattan. It was a single, tragic event. Yet he’s being prosecuted twice for the same conduct,” she said.
“As Luigi explained in court today, he endured years of severe, debilitating pain following a broken back while struggling to navigate our healthcare and health insurance systems. Like the thousands of people who have reached out since this tragedy to share their own experiences, he believed that the system had failed him and destroyed his life,” she added.
This story is being updated.
