Luigi Mangione , accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City and leading authorities on a five-day search is scheduled, appears in court for a hearing, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in New York. (AP)
A New York federal judge on Friday dismissed murder and weapons charges against Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in a major blow to prosecutors and the Donald Trump administration.
US District Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed the federal murder and weapons charges against Mangione, finding that it was technically flawed, because they were legally incompatible with the two counts of stalking Mangione faces. Garnett previously scheduled jury selection to begin in the case in September.
Dominic Gentile, a federal prosecutor, told Garnett at a routine court hearing on Friday the government has not decided whether it will appeal.
Newer: No death penalty for Luigi Mangione — a federal judge dropped Counts 3 and 4 of the indictment.
27-year-old Mangione had previously pleaded not guilty to murder, weapons and stalking charges for allegedly gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in Midtown Manhattan in 2024.
Mangione has separately pleaded not guilty to murder, weapons and forgery charges in Manhattan state court. No trial date has been set.
Public officials condemned the shocking killing, but Mangione became a folk hero of sorts to some Americans who decry steep healthcare costs and insurance practices.
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In a 39-page decision, Garnett said federal prosecutors could pursue their murder and weapons charges only if the stalking charges qualified as “crimes of violence.”
She said the charges did not qualify because any use of force could be achieved through reckless, as opposed to intentional, conduct.
The judge said prosecutors and Mangione agreed that this fell short of the kind of “force” the Supreme Court required to make out a crime of violence.
Garnett acknowledged the “apparent absurdity” of the legal landscape, saying no one would seriously question that Mangione’s alleged conduct — crossing state lines to kill a specific healthcare executive with a handgun equipped with a silencer — was violent criminal conduct.
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She said her analysis may strike ordinary people, and many lawyers and judges, as “tortured and strange,” but it “represents the court’s committed effort to faithfully apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges in this case. The law must be the court’s only concern.”
In a separate decision, Garnett rejected Mangione’s bid to exclude evidence seized from his backpack when he was arrested.
Mangione argued that evidence found in the backpack, including a 9-millimeter pistol, silencer and journal entries, should be suppressed because police obtained it without a warrant.
The judge said it was standard practice for local police to search closed bags that might reasonably contain dangerous objects, and the police had probable cause to conduct a search. She also said the contents would have been discovered inevitably through a federal search warrant.
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Luigi Mangione , accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City and leading authorities on a five-day search is scheduled, appears in court for a hearing, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in New York. (AP) 
