Luigi Mangione, who is accused of plotting to kill the UnitedHealthcare CEO, will appear in court this Monday for a hearing focused on selecting the jury for his upcoming federal trial. This comes shortly after negotiations for a potential plea agreement reportedly broke down.
At 28, the former Ivy League student is not only embroiled in the federal case but is also facing a separate state-level murder charge regarding the fatal shooting of 50-year-old Brian Thompson in December 2024.
Since April, both the Justice Department and Mangione’s defense attorneys have been engrossed in crafting a jury questionnaire for the federal trial.
On September 16, 2025, Luigi Mangione was seen in Manhattan state court in New York during a hearing that resulted in a judge dismissing terrorism-related charges linked to the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post)
While the jury questionnaires remain under wraps, court filings reveal that both sides are contesting their contents. Attorneys for the prosecution filed a court letter in May, raising concerns over some of the defense’s suggested questions, labeling them as excessively probing or redundant.
Some things the defense is looking to learn about prospective jurors includes their living situations, including whether they own or rent a home, their employment status, and if they have worked toward a goal as a part of a group, whether they have children and background information on their children, and details about their faith.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4, 2024, while heading to a shareholder conference. (Steven Hirsch for New York Post via Pool)
The defense also seeks to ask jurors about their background in the context of jails, firearms and law enforcement, the type of television shows they watch, and any prejudices with the criminal justice system. The defense wants to know if a juror regularly stays at the Hilton on 6th Avenue, the scene of the crime — and whether the potential juror works for or holds stock in UnitedHealthcare.
Last week, reports citing anonymous sources claimed that Mangione’s attorneys and federal prosecutors were having discussions about a plea deal but were unable to come to an agreement.
In a statement to Fox, Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo called information attributed to anonymous sources, “a troubling, deliberate pattern by prosecutors and law enforcement to prejudice Luigi.” A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on the reported plea negotiations.
Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is shown in an undated portrait provided by UnitedHealth. He was shot and killed on his way to an investor conference in New York City in what prosecutors described as a politically motivated assassination. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)
Separately, Mangione’s lawyers floated and then withdrew a potential psychiatric defense in the state case.
They sent a one-sentence letter to the court, telling Judge Gregory Carro that they were withdrawing a notice made public just a day earlier that signaled plans to pursue an extreme emotional disturbance defense in his state case.
Evidence including Luigi Mangione’s gun was presented by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office during a suppression hearing in the investigation of the murder of UNC CEO Brian Thompson. (DOJ)
The move would have required Mangione to concede that he shot Thompson, a father of two, at his state trial. If he were later convicted under New York’s extreme emotional disturbance law, the murder charge would be reduced to manslaughter, and the potential sentence would be reduced from 25 years to life in prison to five to 25 years.
With his federal trial not scheduled to begin until early next year, it’s unclear how such a defense in the state case would have impacted that one. The federal case carries stiffer potential sentences, and there is no federal equivalent to New York’s emotional disturbance law.
Mangione is accused of plotting the murder, traveling across state lines to New York City ahead of a UnitedHealthcare business conference and shooting Thompson in the back outside the venue.
Prosecutors have alleged he had used a fake name to check into a Manhattan hostel and then fled to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police arrested him at a McDonald’s restaurant.