New York state prosecutors accuse Luigi Mangione of handwriting in his personal diary about a desire to kill the late UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson six weeks before the shooting.
Prosecutors allege Mangione wrote in August 2024: “I finally feel confident about what I will do. The details are coming together. And I don't feel any doubt about whether it's right/justified. I'm glad in a way that I've procrastinated [because] it allowed me to learn more about [UnitedHealthcare].”
Thompson—a father of two sons—died at dawn on Dec. 4, 2024 after a surprise attack as he walked from his midtown Marriott Hotel on West 54 Street to the company’s annual investor conference at a nearby Hilton Hotel on 6th Avenue.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office court filing also alleges that the 27-year-old wrote a confession “To the feds,” in which he said, “it had to be done,” and praised the late Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, who was incarcerated for killing three people and injuring 23 others with a series of homemade bombs between 1978 and 1995.
Mangione has pled not guilty to both state and federal accusations that he killed Thompson with a ghost gun.
When asked to comment, Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo’s office instead brought to light a request submitted to New York Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro on June 3 that Mangione be unshackled during state trial proceedings and allowed to sit in court without a bulletproof vest on.
“Wearing handcuffs and a visible bulletproof vest in court unfairly prejudices Mr. Mangione and impedes his right to effectively defend himself for no justifiable reason,” Agnifilo stated in the letter obtained by NTD. “We are seeking a Court order to ensure that these accommodations continue throughout the pendency of this case.”
The pleading was signed by attorney Jacob Kaplan, Karen Agnifilo, and her husband Marc Agnifilo, who is among the attorneys defending gangster rapper Sean Combs, currently on trial for sex trafficking charges in the Southern District of New York federal court.
Mangione, who is an Ivy League graduate and from a family invested in real estate in Maryland, has pleaded not guilty to state charges of murder and terror. He also faces federal charges, which were handed down on Dec. 19, 2024. His defense team argues that the state and parallel federal cases violate the U.S. Constitution's double jeopardy clause.
“The District Attorney's Office has expanded New York's terrorism statute well beyond its legislative intent and its natural and legal definition to seek enhanced charges against Mr. Mangione, while also violating Mr. Mangione's rights against Double Jeopardy by simultaneously charging him alongside the federal government for identical alleged conduct,” Agnifilo said in a May 2025 state court filing obtained by NTD.
Double jeopardy under the U.S. Constitution dictates that a person cannot be prosecuted twice for the same offense.
Nicholas Biase, chief spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, declined to comment, and the Manhattan district attorney's office did not respond to requests for comment by press time.