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.”
His attorney also backed up the claim as she announced the decision to plead guilty before Mangione himself spoke. 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. 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.
Luigi Mangione’s sentencing is now set for a separate hearing on December 18, 2026.
“I knew what I was doing was illegal,” Mangione told the judge. Karen Friedman Agnifilo said that Mangione accepted “full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson. “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.
