NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty on Friday to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, admitting matter-of-factly that he trailed the executive to an investor conference in 2024 and gunned him down on a New York City street.

Mangione, 28, said he even used a ruse to glean information about the event, contacting the health insurance company ahead of time under the guise of being an investor at a multibillion-dollar firm.

“On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione told the court. In the audience, Thompson’s wife, Paulette, took several deep breaths and repeatedly wiped tears from her eyes. A supporter put an arm around the wife and held her tight.

Prosecutors plan to seek a life prison term at Mangione’s sentencing, set for Dec. 18. When U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett asked whether he understood that he could spend the rest of his life behind bars, Mangione answered neutrally: “Yes.”

Thompson’s family later called the plea “an important step toward justice” and noted that Mangione still faces other cases, including a New York state murder prosecution.

“We will continue to seek the justice Brian deserves,” the relatives said in a statement issued through a spokesperson.

Mangione still faces a separate state murder case
Mangione entered the plea at a hastily scheduled hearing in Manhattan federal court, resolving one of two cases against him in connection with Thompson’s death. Mangione’s lawyers quickly sought to have his separate New York state murder case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds.

“Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson,” defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said outside court, arguing that her client shouldn’t face two prosecutions over a “single tragic event.”

Prosecutors didn’t recommend a sentencing break for Mangione or give him any other incentive to plead guilty, they and his lawyers said. A defendant in a criminal case always has the option of pleading guilty without any such deal.

Nor did Mangione plead guilty to avoid a potential death sentence. That possibility was taken off the table when a federal murder charge was tossed out this winter.

Mangione alludes to back pain in explaining his actions
Surveillance video of the ambush showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson, 50, from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

That detail — and revelations that Mangione’s private writings lambasted health insurers as greedy, according to authorities — made the case a fulcrum for debate about the industry and made Mangione a cause célèbre for some of its critics.

A University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, Mangione told the court Friday that he pursued Thompson “after years of enduring severe pain from a broken back and navigating the obstacles of the health insurance system.”

Friedman Agnifilo later said her client “believed that the system had failed him and destroyed his life.”

Authorities say Mangione’s grievances are no excuse for killing
Mangione never was a UnitedHealthcare customer, according to police and the company.

“To those who idolize Luigi Mangione, I say this. Violence is not a cause. Murder is not a message. And a killer is certainly not a hero,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said outside court Friday.

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald, whose office handled the federal case, added: “There can be no celebrity in assassination.”

Thompson led one of the United States’ largest health insurers, but he wasn’t well known outside the industry. Trained as an accountant, he had worked at parent company UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, in 2021.

Thompson’s violent death “devastated everyone who knew and loved him,” the company said in a statement Friday, thanking law enforcement for bringing him to justice.

Now Mangione is pressing to end the state case
But his federal guilty plea does give him leverage to argue for closing out the New York state prosecution, which carries the potential for a separate long sentence.

The state’s double jeopardy protections can kick in if a prior prosecution ends in a guilty plea.

Mangione’s cases involve different charges arising from the same course of conduct. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is handling the state prosecution, said Friday that it remains committed to its case and would contest the defense’s efforts to shut it down.

In June, Mangione’s lawyers said they would pursue a psychiatric defense in the state case but reversed course a day later. The defense, involving claims that he was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the killing, isn’t allowed in federal court.

In the federal case, Garnett had delivered some setbacks to the defense, including ruling in January that prosecutors could use items collected from Mangione’s backpack during his arrest as evidence against him. They included a 3D-printed pistol that investigators said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to kill an insurance executive.

Mangione was arrested five days after the shooting, when he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. It’s about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. In the days after the shooting, police had released various images of the suspected shooter, including one showing his face as he checked into a hostel.