National

Luigi Mangione: Judge tosses 2 state murder charges related to act of terrorism

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on September 16, 2025

(NEW YORK) — A judge dismissed two murder charges related to acts of terrorism as Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, made his first Manhattan courtroom appearance in five months on Tuesday.

Judge Gregory Carro tossed out the most severe charge, first-degree murder, accusing Mangione of murder as a crime of terrorism.

The judge said the evidence presented to the grand jury was insufficient to support the terrorism charge.

Carro also tossed a second-degree murder charge, related to killing as an act of terrorism.

The rest of the indictment remains, with the judge refusing to dismiss another second-degree murder charge, to which the accused killer has pleaded not guilty.

Mangione will be tried in state court on a charge of intentional murder in connection with Thompson’s murder.

Mangione returned to a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday for the first time in five months, hoping the judge will either dismiss state murder and terrorism charges or suppress evidence seized during his arrest.

Mangione is accused of shooting and killing CEO Brian Thompson with a 9 mm handgun equipped with a silencer on a Midtown Manhattan street on Dec. 4, 2024.

After a several-day manhunt, Mangione was captured in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

When police found Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona, he was carrying a backpack that investigators said contained the alleged murder weapon, a fake ID and a red notebook he used as a diary.

“I finally feel confident about what I will do,” one entry said, according to authorities. “The target is insurance. It checks every box.”The defense argued police lacked a warrant, making the search of the backpack illegal.

A federal grand jury charged Mangione in April with two counts of stalking, firearms offense and murder through the use of a firearm, a charge that makes him eligible for the death penalty, if convicted.

He also faces state charges in New York in connection with the shooting.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York and Pennsylvania as well as the federal charges. The simultaneous prosecutions put him in what his attorneys have called an “untenable situation” and they’ve asked Judge Gregory Carro to dismiss the state case, or at least put it on hold.

Prosecutors are hoping the judge will set a date for trial.Mangione is also being ordered to appear in a Pennsylvania courtroom regarding those state charges. While he is currently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the Blair County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania wants the accused killer to appear in court for a pretrial motion hearing scheduled for Nov. 7.

In Pennsylvania, Mangione has pleaded not guilty to charges of forgery, possession of an instrument of a crime and giving a false ID to an officer.