By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-23 12:09:37 | Updated at 2024-12-23 16:36:10
4 hours ago
Accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione will face a Manhattan judge for the second time in five days on Monday — but it’s still unclear if the feds or the state will get the first crack at him.
Mangione, 26, is expected to be turned over to the NYPD by federal agents in the morning and brought into state court for his arraignment on murder charges.
On Thursday, he faced Magistrate Judge Katherine Parker in Manhattan federal court down the street.
It has not yet been determined which jurisdiction — state or federal — gets to take Mangione to trial first.
“This is a highly unusual situation we find ourselves in,” Parker acknowledged in court last week.
The accused killer was hauled back to the Big Apple last week after getting nabbed munching on hash browns at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s in the Dec. 4 execution-style shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.
Mangione, who was hit with federal murder, gun and stalking charges on Thursday, was also indicted on 11 counts in state court last week, including first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism — a rarely used statute — as well as second-degree murder and several illegal gun possession charges.
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Since the Empire State has no death penalty, the top charge in that case is life without parole, but a federal conviction would leave open the capital punishment option.
Mangione is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn but is expected to be transported to the federal courthouse in Manhattan where he’ll be turned over to the NYPD Monday, sources said.
Cops will then haul him to Manhattan Supreme Court for arraignment on state charges.
The decision on whether he goes to trial in federal or a state court will eventually be made by a federal judge — but when or which jurist will make the call remains up in the air.
The suspected gunman fled the five boroughs after allegedly shooting Thompson, 50, with a ghost gun outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown before taking off on a Citi Bike and hopping a bus out of dodge.
After a five-day nationwide manhunt, Mangione was busted in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he stopped at a local McDonald’s after getting off a Greyhound bus that was passing through town.
An Ivy League graduate and scion of a wealthy Baltimore real estate family, authorities said Mangione planned the murder months in advance over a gripe with the “parasitic” health insurance industry.
In a dark twist, the accused killer has become a cult hero for some health insurance company detractors, even spawning merchandise with “Free Luigi” and “Deny Defend Depose” slogans, the latter a reference to the words scratched onto the bullets he allegedly used.
Earlier this month, Amazon yanked some of the items off their online marketplace.
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