Probable murderer Luigi Mangione returns to a criminal court in New York on Friday for a hearing in connection with murder of the state and terrorism in a vast case around the murder in the murder in the United Healthcare Brian Thompson In Manhattan.
The 26-year-old former Ivy Leaguer is accused of stalking Thompson, a married father of two, and him in the back outside a shareholders’ conference at the beginning of December, in an alleged attack that researchers painted as cold-blooded and pre-consecutive.
Many of his defenders have quickly noticed that he is considered innocent until he is guilty in the eyes of the law. But his considerable support is the reason for concern about possible jury – not declaration – when jury members make a judgment based on ideology instead of the law.
“Jury Selection will be crucial in the Mangione case,” says Edwina Elcox, a boise -based defense lawyer whose former customers have recorded the so -called “cult mom” Lori Vallow. “He is seen as a modern Robin Hood.”
A security image released by the NYPD shows the suspect in the shooting in the death of the United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. The suspect can approach Thompson from behind and shoot him several times before running away from the scene. (NYPD Crimestoppers)
Donations to his legal defense fund have surpassed more than $ 200,000 in the last 10 days – collecting more than $ 200,000, when supporters could approach the nearly 10,000 donors at the $ 300,000. Some proponents even described him as a ‘humanitarian’.
“It’s a fascinating business,” Elcox told Fox News Digital. “The CEO was A terrible unsympathetic figurehead of a company with horror stories about how (it) people who desperately needed various medical interventions – alternated against handsome, trained, talented young man without criminal history. ”
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Luigi Mangione appears on December 23, 2024 in the Supreme Court of Manhattan in New York City. Mangione is confronted with murder attacks for alleged shooting at Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare. (Curtis means for DailyMail/Pool)
Although both parties are likely to focus strongly on Voir Dire, there is still strong evidence in the case, said Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector.
“Jury -not a statement can always be a problem, especially with how this child came to capture so many progressive complaints against companies and the insurance sector, but I don’t think even Manhattan’s criminal law is so fully taxed,” he said Fox News Digital. “Yes, this is the location that our Alvin Bragg brought, but this is also the location in which 12 ordinary New Yorkers Daniel Penny have acquitted.”
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The case looks “very strong” at this stage, he said, and he expects jury members to weigh evidence in a responsible manner.
“And everyone who thinks the jury is void is a good idea, I would only remind them that there is one Federal death penalty Against Mangione lurking behind the Bragg case, the FBI was allowed to bring it, “he added.
Mangione is confronted with three separate criminal proceedings, in New York, Pennsylvania and Federal Court.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Murder suspect Luigi Mangione charged in New York
Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was murdered in New York on December 4. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group)
The killing has been politically charged from the start – after the police revealed that they found bullet covers on the spot with handwritten messages: “defense”, “Depose” and “deny”.
Those words are creepy similar to the title of a book that is very critical of Thompson’s health insurance sector, “delay, deny, defend: why insurance companies do not pay claims and what you can do about it”, written by Jay Feinman and published in 2010.
View ‘Deny, Defend, Delay: The Murder of A CEO’ on Fox Nation
A screenshot of surveillance images released by the NYPD shows an alleged person who was sought in connection with the shooting at the Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (NYPD Crime stoppers)
Mangione has a diploma from the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and went to an elite private -medicine school in Baltimore. Despite the characterization of a number of supporters of him as an anti-capitalist crusader, he would reportedly stop at a New York City Starbucks for coffee minutes for the murder and he was eventually arrested that Hashbrowns ate at a McDonald’s in Altoona.
Mangione, who claims to keep the police a diary about crime, is accused of “carefully” planning the murder with the motive to ignite a “public discussion about health care”, according to the Ministry of Justice.
CEO of the UnitedHealthcare Slaying Suspected Luigi Mangione depicted on a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday, December 9, 2024. (Pennsylvania State Police)
Federal prosecutors claim that he has stalked the victim, arrived a week in advance in New York City and explored his surroundings. The police would have found his DNA and fingerprints near the crime scene and said he had linked a gun to the murder in his backpack when he was arrested days later.
The NYPD released a stationary image from surveillance video, from which he showed that he pulled down his coronavirus mask and smiled while he flirted with a servant at the check-in of the Manhattan-Hostel where the police say he was for the murder stayed. It went viral and immediately pulled a wave of support online for the accused murderer.
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Luigi Mangione calls while officers control him when he arrives for his extradition hearing at Blair County Courthouse in Hollidayburg, Pennsylvania on Tuesday 10 December 2024. (David Dee Delgado for Fox News Digital)
The police said they reportedly found the suspect weaponA 3D-printed suppressor and the same fake ID that was used to check in in New York hostel in the arrest of Mangione.
The group behind his fundraising of the Defense, the titllless Legal Committee on December 4, describes itself as “a team of 15 volunteers in the United States” that “independently was created by Mangione’s supporters on his behalf”. Two of his spokespersons, Sam Beard and Jamie Peck, also organize a podcast “About Communism and Gossip” called “Party Girls”.
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A Monday hearing in the Pennsylvania case has been postponed if he is waiting for more serious charges in New York and in the federal court, which could lead to a life sentence without a conditional release or death respectively.
Audrey Conklin from Fox News has contributed to this report.
