In a major defeat for Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, the judge presiding over the case against Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old Ivy League graduate accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson, dismissed the two terrorism charges state prosecutors had brought against him. 

“I carefully looked over the motions,” the New York supreme court justice, Gregory Carro, told a packed courtroom and, referring to a written decision that the parties had already received, he said the top two counts in the indictment — the terrorism counts — would be dismissed because the evidence was “legally insufficient.”

Last December, Mr. Bragg handed up an 11-count indictment against Mr. Mangione for allegedly carrying out “the brazen, targeted and fatal shooting” of the UnitedHealthcare executive, who had been on his way to an investor conference at a Hilton hotel at Midtown Manhattan in the early morning hours of December 4. 

Prosecutors allege, as stated on the district attorney’s website, that at 6:45 a.m. Mr. Mangione approached Thompson from behind, armed with a 9-millimeter 3D-printed ghost gun equipped with a silencer and shot Thompson “once in the back and once in the leg.” The executive was pronounced dead at the hospital half an hour later. 

Count one of the indictment charged Mr. Mangione with murder in the first degree “in furtherance of an act of terrorism,” the most serious homicide offense in New York state, punishable by 20 years to life behind bars without the possibility of parole. Count two charged murder in the second degree “as an act of terrorsim.” Both charges allege that the defendant acted with the intention “to intimidate or coerce a civilian population” and/or “influence the policies of a unit of government.”  

But defense attorneys argued that these charges were unwarranted and that the grand jury evidence failed to establish that their client had acted with the intention of harming the entire civilian population nor that he made threats against — or demands from — any unit of the government. 

Judge Carro agreed and dismissed the two counts, leaving intact the third count, which is murder in the second degree, or “the intent to cause the death” and having caused the death of Thompson. This is a serious charge that also carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, but includes the possibility of parole.

In his decision, the judge referred to federal prosecutors who had not brought a terrorsim charge. ​​”Notably, the federal authorities, while recognizing that Brian Thompson was ‘gunned down in cold blood,’ did not charge the defendant with crimes of terror, but with using a firearm to commit murder and related crimes,” the judge wrote. 

Mr. Mangione is being charged for the same crime both in federal and in state court. Because he faces the death penalty in federal court, which Attorney General Pam Bondi has said the government intends to pursue, his attorneys asked that the federal case be tried first. 

But Judge Carro appeared to want to stick to an oral agreement made between state and federal prosecutors last year, that the state case would go first, and scheduled the next hearing for December 1. 

Defense attorneys had also requested that the entire state case be dismissed, claiming that “concurrent state and federal prosecutions” violate the double jeopardy clause. But the judge denied that motion.

Mr. Mangione sat at the defense table, wearing a tan prison jump suit and handcuffs. The last time he had appeared in state court in February, he wore a bulletproof vest. After that hearing his attorneys filed a motion requesting that at his “next court appearance … Mr. Mangione be permitted to have his hands unshackled while seated at the defense table and he be permitted to wear court appropriate clothing without a bulletproof vest.” 

His lead defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, argued that a bulletproof vest could prejudice the jury pool and that Mr. Mangione has already been prejudiced “in the media more than virtually any defendant in recent memory” after his “staged perp walk.” 

After the shooting, Mr. Mangione allegedly fled the Manhattan crime scene  immediately and traveled to central Pennsylvania, where he was arrested at a McDonald’s at Altoona, following a five-day manhunt. Ten days after his arrest, he was extradited to New York, where he arrived at Manhattan’s Wall Street heliport, and was met by Mayor Eric Adams and the New York Police Department commissioner, Jessica Tisch, other high ranking officials and a swarm of NYPD officers.

Ms. Agniflio later criticized Mr. Adams for treating her client, as she told the Judge Carro during the indictment, “like a spectacle” when he was given “the biggest perp walk” she said she had “ever seen,” escorted by “assault riffles” that she said “I didn’t know existed.”

The judge had agreed that no bulletproof vest was necessary, but the defendant wore handcuffs and shackles on his feet and prisoner’s garb. 

In another success for the defense team, which includes Ms. Agniflio’s husband, Mark Agniflio — who recently successfully defended the music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs in his sex-trafficking case, securing a not guilty verdict on the most serious charges — the judge ordered that prosecutors would be precluded from using evidence they wrongly obtained from Mr. Mangione’s former health provider, Aetna.  

Defense attorneys had accused prosecutors of knowingly and inappropriately reviewing Mr. Mangione’s private medical records after the insurance company turned them over pursuant to a subpoena. The defense argued that Mr. Mangione’s HIPAA rights had been violated, referring to the federal law that protects the privacy of individuals’ medical health information.

But prosecutors denied the accusations, writing in their reply briefs that there was nothing “secretive or nefarious” about their request, but that they had only requested Mr. Mangione’s account number and “the period of time during which he received coverage.” They blamed Aetna, saying the health provider had sent over “documents that the People had not requested.” 

The judge precluded any usage of these documents as evidence during the trial. He did not, however, make a ruling regarding the evidence that was obtained during Mr. Mangione’s arrest, like a handwritten manifesto and a ghost gun that, according to detectives, matches the bullet casings from the crime scene. 

The defense had argued that because Mr. Mangione was not read his Miranda rights during his arrest and because his backpack was searched without a warrant, the evidence was obtained unlawfully and thus should be suppressed at trial. The judge said he would rule on the motion later.  

Lastly, the judge also addressed the matter of the psychiatric defense. Prosecutors had accused the defense of attempting to delay the trial by not adhering to an August 25 deadline when they were supposed to disclose to the district attorney’s office whether Mr. Mangione intends to use a psychiatric defense, meaning that they would argue he was not mentally stable, or was mentally disturbed, when he allegedly committed the murder.  

“Unnecessary delay thwarts the timely search for truth and erodes public confidence in the justice system,” a state prosecutor, Joel Seidemann, wrote in a letter sent to the judge last week.

If Mr. Mangione decides to use such a psychiatric defense argument, he could possibly receive a lesser sentence or be institutionalized. But his defense attorneys pushed back on the suggestion of a deadline breach, claiming that they cannot disclose any legal strategy or arguments because their client also faces charges from federal prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty. 

“We ask the court to recognize the truly unprecedented situation facing Mr. Mangione and his counsel given the multiple prosecutions for the same offense, including one that involves the death sentence,” Ms. Agnifilo wrote in her reply brief.

Judge Carro ordered the defense team to submit their answer within the next two weeks.   

In addition to the indictments in New York, Mr. Mangione also faces charges in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested, for allegedly carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities, and possessing instruments of a crime. The Blair County District Attorney’s Office has asked the U.S. Marshals Service to facilitate Mr. Mangione’s appearance before the Blair County court for a pretrial motion hearing on November 7. The marshals, who have the right to deny the request, have not yet responded. 

Mr. Mangione is due in state court on December 1 and due in federal court on December 5.