Luigi Mangione appeared in a New York courtroom Tuesday for what could be the final hearing before his state murder trial begins next month.
Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to several state charges in connection with the December 2024 fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside the New York Hilton Midtown.
At Tuesday’s hearing, New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro is expected to determine jury selection logistics — a task that could prove challenging given the case’s notoriety. Jury selection is set to begin September 8.
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If convicted, Mangione faces up to life in prison.
On Tuesday, the courtroom was filled with journalists and some Mangione proponents, who were wearing green, a color that appeared to reference the Luigi character from the iconic Nintendo Super Mario games and subsequent movies.
Mangione entered the courtroom from a holding area wearing a grey suit. He glanced around the room before taking his seat next to his attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan.
Luigi Mangione appears for a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (David Dee Delgado/Pool Photo via AP) Credit: David Dee Delgado/David Dee Delgado/POOL Reuters via AP
Justice Gregory Carro ruled at the start of the hearing that the jury would be anonymous, a designation that is becoming increasingly more common in high-profile court cases in New York.
Carro also said there would be expanded press and public access to the trial. After fielding complaints from Mangione’s defense team about potential space limitations, court administrators arranged for an overflow room.
“It has always been under consideration, they had to find the physical place and it had to be staffed,” Carro said.
Mangione’s case has garnered international headlines, with mostly female supporters who have appeared in court throughout the pretrial hearings and argue that his actions were justified.
Brian Thompson. Credit: United Health Group/United Health Group
Prosecutors allege Mangione was motivated by an animus toward the health insurance industry, but he was never a UnitedHealthcare customer. He had no connection to Thompson, a father of two from Minnesota.
Mangione allegedly trailed Thompson and identified his movements in New York, where the prominent health care executive was attending his company’s investors conference, prosecutors say.
He then allegedly shot Thompson from behind outside the hotel, then fled the city. He was apprehended several days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a McDonald’s employee called the police.
This still image from surveillance video obtained by the Associated Press outside a Manhattan hotel, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024 Credit: Unknown/NYPD
Former Manhattan prosecutor Rebecca Roiphe told NBC News that during jury selection, prosecutors will likely want to scrutinise potential jurors’ experiences in the health care system to weed out those who might sympathise with Mangione.
“I think the prosecution is clearly going to want to keep off people who have some kind of axe to grind about health care,” Roiphe said.
Roiphe, who is now a criminal law and ethics professor at New York Law School, believes the defence will seek panellists with a “healthcare for all mindset.”
Mangione separately faces federal stalking-related charges in New York and has pleaded not guilty. The Justice Department was seeking the death penalty in the federal case, but that option was taken off the table earlier this year.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett issued a ruling in January that effectively blocks New York federal prosecutors from pursuing a capital case.
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