Luigi Mangione could face US murder trial this year, judge says

David Voreacos and Patricia Hurtado, Bloomberg News on Jan 9, 2026

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NEW YORK — A U.S. judge said the federal murder trial of Luigi Mangione may begin later this year, but the date will depend on whether she allows prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against him for the killing of UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson.

U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Garnett said Friday during a hearing in New York that she is likely to set jury selection for Sept. 8, with a trial possibly starting in December. Garnett said the timing will depend on whether she grants Mangione’s motion to dismiss two stalking charges that make the 27-year-old eligible for capital punishment if he’s convicted.

Mangione was arrested at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s on Dec. 9, 2024, after a five-day national manhunt that began with the shooting of Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel where he was set to speak at an investor’s conference. Mangione faces murder charges in New York state and federal courts, and lesser charges in Pennsylvania of forgery, giving a fake ID to police and possessing a gun without a license. He’s pleaded not guilty in all three cases.

Federal prosecutors had previously told Garnett that Mangione’s parallel state murder case would be the first to go to trial — a position that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also told a New York state judge. U.S. prosecutors and Mangione’s lawyers effectively agreed Friday that the federal case will go first. But the timing remains unclear as the state judge hasn’t set a trial date yet.

Garnett initially said Friday she would defer setting a trial date because any ruling could lead to lengthy appeals. But prosecutors urged her to set a trial date so they can begin to prepare for the case.

The judge said she could begin with jury selection in early September.

“It may make more sense to start Sept. 8, or the first working week in September,” Garnett said.

The judge said that if she decides that Mangione will face charges that potentially carry the death penalty, she would start a trial in January 2027. If she dismisses those charges, she said, a trial may begin as soon as a jury is selected.

Mangione, who hadn’t been in federal court since his arraignment in April, wore beige jail fatigues and shackles around his ankles as he sat between his primary defense lawyers, Karen Friedman Agnifilo and her husband, Marc Agnifilo. The case has drawn intense national interest and Mangione has been cheered by fans who say he expressed their rage at the health care system.

Police say that they found significant evidence tying Mangione to Thompson’s murder, including a 9-millimeter handgun, a silencer, a loaded gun magazine, a diary and a passport.

Garnett heard arguments for more than an hour Friday on how to interpret the law used to charge Mangione with stalking Thompson.

She also said she’s not inclined to hold an evidentiary hearing on whether she should suppress evidence collected from his backpack by police when he was arrested in Pennsylvania. Garnett said she will decide within the next two weeks on whether to hold the hearing. She set another hearing for Jan. 30.

Last month, New York Judge Gregory Carro oversaw three weeks of evidentiary hearings on whether he should suppress evidence collected from his backpack. The judge said he’ll make a decision by May.