Prosecutors say UnitedHealthcare CEO slaying suspect Luigi Mangione is ‘clearly’ a terrorist

MANHATTAN (CN) — New York City prosecutors in Luigi Mangione’s state murder case are defending their “open and shut” charges against the 27-year-old Ivy League graduate, who is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.

“If ever there were an open and shut case pointing to defendant’s guilt, this case is that case,” prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office say in a 58-page document, filed Wednesday in New York County Supreme Court.

The prosecutors add that they would be “hard pressed to find a case with such overwhelming evidence of guilt as to the identity of the murderer and the premeditated nature of the assassination.”

Mangione was indicted at the end of 2024 by a Manhattan grand jury on terrorism-related murder charges, as well as several gun charges. Earlier this month, he challenged prosecutors’ use of state terrorism law against him and asked the court to dismiss the indictment.

Prosecutors responded to Mangione’s defense motion on Wednesday by scrutinizing the supposed motivation behind Thompson’s killing. They referenced journal entries found on Mangione’s person after his arrest, which included a potential news headline to come out of the murder:

“Insurance CEO killed at annual investors conference,” the headline would read, according to one entry attached to the new filing.

The entry continued that the goal of such a killing would be to shed light on “a company that literally extracts human life force for money.”

Another entry said that the UnitedHealthcare investor conference, where Thompson was headed the morning he was shot to death, “embodies everything wrong with our health system.” The journal also made a reference to wanting to “wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention.”

Prosecutors say that those words, among others, show that Thompson was killed “to send a message” to the insurance industry, and opens Mangione up to terrorism charges.

“He wrote of revolutionary acts and how to achieve them while garnering the support of the public at large,” the district attorney’s office argues. “Clearly, defendant was seeking to bring about a revolution in health care and to abolish health insurance companies.”

The terrorism-related murder charges against Mangione are described in his indictment as killings committed “with intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.”

Prosecutors add that Mangione “achieved his dastardly goals by inspiring a vocal minority of individuals to engage in a broader campaign of threats of violence against UHC employees and other health insurance workers.”

They claim that some UnitedHealthcare employees quit out of fear after Thompson’s murder, while others started refusing to sign their names on denial letters out of fear of retribution.

Additionally, 40 of the company’s executives received personal security. One executive went as far as to dye her hair and move to a temporary home out of fear for her safety, prosecutors argue.

“Defendant thus got what he sought: by deliberately assassinating the CEO in the name of revolutionary anarchism, he put innocent employees in the crosshairs of other revolutionary anarchists similarly disposed,” the district attorney’s office says.

Prosecutors also claim that they were confident in naming Mangione as Thompson’s killer, writing that the assassin’s identity is “no mystery.”

They claim that DNA evidence pulled from items dropped at the crime scene link Mangione to the shooting, as do “hundreds of hours” of video surveillance footage tracking the killer’s movements around the city.

Ballistics analysis from the ghost gun recovered on Mangione further reveals that it was the same firearm used in the shooting, prosecutors argue.

Mangione is facing dueling prosecutions for Thompson’s murder. In addition to the New York charges, he is being tried in federal court in Manhattan, where he is eligible for the death penalty.

At this time, both cases are running concurrently, which Mangione laments is preventing him from focusing on his capital punishment case.

Referencing the more than $1 million fundraising campaign for Mangione’s defense fund, prosecutors urge him to “hire new counsel” so the defense can handle both cases at once.

Mangione’s court appearances thus far have attracted significant fanfare. Some of his supporters have hailed him as a folk hero and propped him up as a symbol for health care reform. Others aren’t so sure he did it at all, and have lambasted prosecutors and public officials for treating Mangione differently than other murder suspects.

He is due back in Manhattan’s criminal court on June 26.

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