Mangione pleads guilty to federal charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing

Luigi Mangione has pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges tied to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Mangione, 28, appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Friday. He was charged with two federal offences: interstate stalking resulting in death and stalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death. He pleaded guilty to both.

The charges are separate from the state-level charges Mangione faces connected to Thompson’s killing, which include second-degree murder and firearm offences.

Mangione had previously pleaded not guilty to those charges and has not update his plea. The state-level trial is set to begin next month.

Thompson – a 50-year-old father of two who oversaw the nation’s largest healthcare insurer – was fatally shot on a New York City street in December 2024.

That led to a five-day manhunt that resulted in Mangione being taken into custody at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania five days later.

Speaking during the hearing on Friday, Mangione recounted researching UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference and emailed the company, posing as an investor, to learn more details. He used the information to target Thompson, he said.

“I shot Mr Thompson in Manhattan,” he told the judge, adding he knew doing so was illegal.