UnitedHealthcare CEO killing latest: Veteran former accuser to represent Luigi Mangione in New York

Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, has hired a veteran former New York City prosecutor to defend him against murder charges.

Karen Friedman Agnifilo has been retained to represent Mangione, according to a statement Friday night from her law firm Agnifilo Intrater LLP.

Friedman Agnifilo served as deputy commander in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office from 2014 to 2021 under former DA Cyrus Vance. A biography on her law firm’s website says she played a lead role in the prosecution of “high-profile violent crime cases,” including those involving mental health and cold-case murders.

Mangione, 26, is being held in a Pennsylvania state prison after a judge denied bail Tuesday.

In Pennsylvania, where he was arrested Monday, Mangione faces charges including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun. In New York, he faces charges including second-degree murder.

Earlier this week, Mangione’s attorney in Pennsylvania said he intended to fight extradition to New York, but there were indications Friday that he may now waive extradition to New York City as early as Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday .

“Indications are that the defendant may waive, but that the waiver is not complete until a trial,” Bragg said.

The earliest a trial could be scheduled in Pennsylvania is Tuesday, Bragg said.

“So until then, we will continue to press forward along parallel paths,” he said. “We will be ready whether he wants to waive extradition or whether he wants to contest extradition.”

Among the evidence authorities say ties Mangione to the slaying are three shell casings found outside the Midtown Manhattan hotel where Thompson was fatally shot that match the gun allegedly found on Mangione when he was arrested, police announced Wednesday . Fingerprints found from a water bottle and a Kind bar near the crime scene have also been matched to Mangione, police said.

Authorities are still looking to access a phone found by police in an alley after the shooting believed to be linked to the suspect, sources said Thursday. The police have obtained a search warrant for the phone, sources say.

Writings show Mangione was fixated on the company for months, sources said

Earlier Friday, law enforcement sources said writings seized from Mangione indicate he had developed a fixation and increased malice toward the company and allegedly talked about harming its manager for months.

That fixation would eventually evolve into an alleged plan to fire the CEO, the sources said.

Some of the entries in the notebook seized from Mangione upon his arrest in Pennsylvania earlier this week had dates on them going back to mid-2024, the sources said.

Some of the writings were diary-style, documenting how he felt, what he did that day, and also documented a desire to focus on his health and himself and find his purpose, the sources said.

Then, as time went on—as Mangione reportedly fell out of touch with friends and family and became increasingly isolated—some of his writings indicated a deterioration in his thinking and state of mind, illustrating a gradual build-up toward the alleged plan to kill UnitedHealthCare’s CEO at its “annual parasitic bean counter convention,” sources said.

Suspects left New York by train

Mangione, was apprehended in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday, nearly a week after the Dec. 4 killing in New York City.

The suspect left New York City after the shooting by train and not by bus as first thought, police sources told ABC News.

Initially, investigators believed Mangione had boarded a bus at the Port Authority terminal at the George Washington Bridge, where investigators said he was seen on security cameras being dropped off by a taxi. There were no photos of Mangione actually getting on a bus.

Now, police sources say there is video evidence showing Mangione left the George Washington Bridge bus station, walked south to Penn Station and left New York City by train for Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania authorities have said Mangione then spent several days crossing the state from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

Tips from San Francisco

The FBI’s New York Field Office said Friday that among the many tips the agency received was one from San Francisco police “regarding the possible identity of the suspect.” The FBI said it was “conducting a routine investigation and referred this and other leads to the New York City Police Department.”

The NYPD previously said none of the hundreds of tips it received included Mangione’s identity.

The NYPD confirmed Friday that it received the FBI tip, but that it was not passed on by the agency in a way that distinguished it as being from another law enforcement agency.

The tip was subsequently not prioritized as it might have been if NYPD detectives knew it came from another police department, the NYPD said.

The NYPD had sent detectives to Georgia to follow up on leads coming in from the Atlanta police. The NYPD didn’t do that kind of follow-up on the San Francisco tip because, an NYPD source said, of the way it was passed on by the FBI.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Friday that he believes Mangione was radicalized while attending the University of Pennsylvania.

“Here you have a young man who went to an Ivy League school, came from a wealthy background and family, had all the things that many Americans wanted. But he found himself hating corporations and hating other things, ” said Adams d. GMGT Live’s “The Reset Talk Show.” “We’re radicalizing our kids in general, but specifically on these Ivy League campuses.”

Mangione’s writings, obtained by ABC News, claimed that the United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, but ranks around No. 42 in life expectancy. He said UnitedHealthcare “has grown and grown, but like our life expectancy? No, the reality is that these (indiscernible) have simply become too powerful and they continue to abuse our country for enormous profit.”

“I apologize for any controversy over trauma, but it had to be done,” he reportedly wrote. “Honestly, these parasites just came.”

Neither Mangione nor his parents received insurance through UnitedHealthcare, according to UnitedHealth Group.

Thompson’s murder ignited online anger against the health insurance industry, and some people online have celebrated Mangione. Supporters of Mangione have donated money to a defense fund set up for him, leaving law enforcement officials concerned that Mangione is being turned into a martyr.

Adams attributed the support Mangione is receiving to “anger and pain.”

“People know how challenging it is to navigate our health care system on many levels, the costs of the health care system. Some of the denials, some of the diseases that are not covered. And all across America, people have experienced that disappointment. And so you see a response on it,” Adams said. “And we cannot send a signal that if you are angry about something, if you are angry because you have received a parking fine, then you react with violence.”