Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to stalking in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing
Luigi Mangione admitted stalking and fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, while separate New York state charges remain pending.
New York, United States. Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to stalking UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and admitted fatally shooting him in Manhattan in December 2024.
Federal plea
Mangione, 28, told US District Judge Margaret Garnett that he researched UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference after suffering a broken back and experiencing difficulties with the health insurance system.
He said he travelled to New York intending to kill Thompson and used a 3D printer to make part of a gun.
“I shot Mr Thompson in Manhattan and he died,” Mangione told the court.
The plea means Mangione will avoid a federal trial over Thompson’s killing. There was no plea agreement with prosecutors, according to his lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo.
Potential sentence
Garnett told Mangione he could face a maximum sentence of life in prison on each of the two federal stalking charges. She scheduled sentencing for December 18.
Federal prosecutors had previously charged Mangione with murder, weapons offences and stalking. In January 2026, Garnett dismissed the federal murder and weapons charges on legal grounds, removing the possibility of a federal death sentence.
He could still receive life imprisonment without parole on the remaining federal charges.
Killing and arrest
Thompson was shot dead on December 4, 2024, outside a Manhattan hotel where an investor conference was being held. He was the chief executive of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance division.
Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania following a five-day manhunt that attracted intense media and public attention. The case also became a major subject of discussion on social media, including among people expressing anger towards the US health insurance industry.
State proceedings
Mangione also faces separate state charges in New York, where he has pleaded not guilty to murder, weapons and forgery offences. A state terrorism charge was dismissed in September 2025.
His state murder trial is scheduled to begin on September 8. If convicted of second-degree murder, Mangione faces between 25 years and life in prison.
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