Luigi Mangione’s state murder trial postponed indefinitely amid double
jeopardy fight
[August 18, 2026]
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione’s state murder trial in the killing of
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which was slated to begin Sept. 8,
has been postponed indefinitely as his lawyers seek to have the case
thrown out on double jeopardy grounds following his guilty plea last
week to federal charges.
Judge Gregory Carro issued an order Monday canceling the trial and
giving the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which is prosecuting
the state case, until Oct. 9 to respond to the defense's double jeopardy
claims. A hearing will be held on Dec. 10, Carro said, about a week
before Mangione is scheduled to be sentenced in the federal case.
Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty Friday in Manhattan federal court to a pair
of stalking charges and admitted trailing Thompson to UnitedHealth
Group’s investor conference and gunning him down outside a Manhattan
hotel in 2024. Federal prosecutors said they would seek life in prison
when Mangione is sentenced Dec. 18, though federal sentencing guidelines
call for a term of 24 to 30 years.
“On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and
he died,” Mangione said.
Immediately after his plea, Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking
to have the state case thrown out on double jeopardy and due process
grounds. They described him as a “pawn in parallel prosecutions" and
accused state and federal prosecutors of “trying to punish him twice for
the exact conduct.”
Mangione has pleaded not guilty in the state case, which also carries
the possibility of a life sentence.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a statement
that it would fight efforts to end the state case, in part because
Mangione’s federal sentence isn’t yet known.
Compared with federal law and that of other states, New York has
uncommonly strong protections for defendants facing multiple
prosecutions. A state prosecution can be barred if a federal case
involving the same course of conduct or criminal transaction ends in a
guilty plea or if a jury is sworn.
It will be up to Carro to decide if that applies to Mangione. However
Carro rules, his decision will be subject to appeal.
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Luigi Mangione attends a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal
Court in New York, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (David Dee Delgado/Pool
Photo via AP)
Mangione pleaded guilty to federal charges that accused him of traveling
across state lines by bus to stalk and kill Thompson. The charges
alleged that he used a cellphone, the internet, interstate highways and
a hostel serving out-of-state customers to plan and carry out the
attack.
“The full range of conduct that comprises the stalking offense is
coterminous with the conduct committed as part of the murder offense,”
Mangione’s lawyers wrote in their double jeopardy filing.
That Mangione traveled from out of state "to be at the crime scene at
the time of the shooting does nothing to eliminate the stalking of Mr.
Thompson from the acts constituting his murder,” they added. “They are
all part of the same criminal incident or criminal transaction.”
Bragg’s office contends that the state charges, including murder and
firearms offenses, involve different legal elements and criminal
conduct. In a letter last month, Assistant District Attorney Joel
Seidemann objected to the possibility of a federal guilty plea wiping
out the state case.
Any guilty plea, Seidemann wrote, “must account for the seriousness of
defendant’s offenses” and for the state's interests in prosecuting
Mangione, “including the sanctity of life principle that underpins the
state homicide charges.”
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