New York prosecutors asked Wednesday that the state trial of Luigi Mangione, the man accused in the ambush killing of a health care CEO in 2024, start on July 1 — before the federal trial that is scheduled for later this year.
Mangione, 27, is charged with murder and other counts in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk on Dec. 4, 2024. He is also charged federally, and jury selection in that case has been tentatively set for Sept. 8.
“The State has an overriding interest in trying this defendant for the cold-blooded execution of Brian Thompson,” Joel Seidemann, an assistant district attorney with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, wrote Wednesday in the letter to state Judge Gregory Carro.
Seidemann also wrote that “state interests would be unfairly prejudiced by an unnecessary delay of this important matter until after defendant’s federal trial.”
In the state case, Seidemann wrote, the only outstanding issues are a decision on a suppression-of-evidence hearing and defense compliance with reciprocal discovery demands. He said the defense team has not provided any discovery material to prosecutors.
Mangione’s legal team said it was the first they were hearing about the July 1 trial request in the state case, which they called unrealistic.
“The federal government already has a firm trial date set in September,” attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, of the firm Agnifilo Intrater LLP, said in a statement.
“As a practical matter, Mr. Mangione’s defense team will require the remainder of the year to prepare for that trial,” she said. “We will respond to the Court about this unrealistic request in the coming days.”
Mangione is charged federally with four counts: one count of murder, one count involving the use of a firearm in a crime of violence and two counts of stalking.
Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett is expected to rule soon on whether the case can proceed as a death penalty case.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.
Mangione is accused of shooting Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk as Thompson was headed to a UnitedHealth Group investor conference at around 6:44 a.m.
Mangione approached Thompson from behind and shot him once in the back and once in the leg with a 9 mm handgun, officials have said.
Two spent shell casings found at the scene had the words “deny” and “depose” written on them, and a bullet was found with “delay” written on it, authorities have said.
The killing prompted a massive manhunt that ended when Mangione was arrested at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s restaurant five days after the shooting.
A New York County grand jury indicted him on Dec. 17, 2024.
The Justice Department announced federal charges two days later.
Mangione is being held at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
