The session lasted 30 minutes, and the judge scheduled Mangione’s next court date for February 21.
Luigi Mangione has entered a not guilty plea to state counts, including “terrorist” murder, after he was accused of a savagely shooting down a health insurance executive in New York.
Mangione, 26, was led by a court officer on each arm and a half-dozen officers in a procession as he entered Judge Gregory Carro’s 13th-floor courtroom in the New York state criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan on Monday. He was wearing a burgundy sweater over a white collar shirt and was in chains and handcuffs.
When Carro questioned Mangione about how he entered his plea to the 11-count indictment accusing him of murder as an act of terrorism and weapons offenses, he leaned into a microphone and whispered, “Not guilty.”
The suspect in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4 is charged in both state and federal courts.
He might receive a life sentence without the chance of release if found guilty.
Officers chained Mangione once more and escorted him out of the courthouse following the 30-minute session. He is being imprisoned at a federal prison in Brooklyn called the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Carro scheduled Mangione’s subsequent court date for February 21.
“Political fodder”
Many social media users portrayed Mangione as a hero after Thompson’s murder exposed widespread public dissatisfaction with the profitable US commercial healthcare system.
At Monday’s hearing, Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, stated that the spectacle and other remarks made by public authorities raise the possibility that he won’t receive a fair trial.
“They are treating him like he is some sort of political fodder, some sort of spectacle,” Agnifilo continued. “He is not a symbol, he is someone who is afforded a right to a fair trial.”
In spite of the bitter cold, a few dozen people gathered outside the courthouse to show their support for Mangione and their ire at the medical establishment.
A placard bearing the words “DENY, DEFEND, DEPOSE,” which some allege insurers use to evade paying claims, was held by one individual.
The phrases “deny,” “delay,” and “depose” were discovered scribbled on shot casings at the crime scene, according to the authorities.
42-year-old teacher Kara Hay stated that she thought Mangione’s terrorism charges were incorrect.
With a placard that said “innocent until proven guilty,” Hay declared, “Shooting one CEO does not make him a terrorist, and I do not feel terrorized.”
After a days-long manhunt, Mangione was apprehended on December 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after receiving a tip from McDonald’s employees.
