The man charged with killing a health insurance CEO on the streets of New York earlier this month has hired a former Manhattan prosecutor to defend him against murder charges there.
The law firm Agnifilo Intrater LLC confirmed to NBC News that Karen Friedman Angifilo would represent Luigi Mangione, 26, in New York, where he has so far been charged with second degree murder in the death of UnitedHealhcare chief Brian Thompson, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument, and criminal possession of a weapon.
Friedman Agnifilo served as chief assistant district attorney from 2014 to 2021 while Cyrus Vance Jr. was the Manhattan District Attorney. She also served four years as head of the trial division in the office before becoming chief assistant DA.
She is also the co-host of a weekly podcast on the Meidas Touch Network and a legal advisor for the “Law and Order” television show,” according to ABC News.
Her office said she would “not be making any statements at this time.”
Current Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is presenting evidence to a grand jury and could be seeking an indictment on upgraded charges. Bragg also said that Mangione, who’s being held without bond on gun charges in Pennsylvania after his arrest in Altoona on Monday, could reverse course and waive an extradition hearing early next week, paving the way for his return to New York.
Mangione’s Pennsylvania attorney, Thomas Dickey, had previously said he’d be interested in representing the accused killer in New York, although he is not licensed to appear in that state.
It’s not known who is funding either of Mangione’s attorneys. GoFundMes soliciting donations for his defense were taken down by the platform, saying the solicitations violated its prohibition for supporting violence crimes, NBC News said. A solicitation on the platform GiveSendGo remains up and has brought in nearly $100,000, although it’s not known if any of that money has gone or will go to Mangione’s defense.
Mangione’s prominent Maryland family has not commented on his legal representation.
Meanwhile, New York police now say they spoke with Mangione’s mother the day before his arrest in Pennsylvania after receiving word from the San Francisco Police Department, via the FBI, that a California police officer had recognized Mangione from surveillance photographs released by New York police and photographs handed over to investigators earlier this year when the mother reported her son missing, ABC News reported.
New York Police had previously said they didn’t know Mangione’s name before his arrest and that the FBI did not tell them the San Francisco information came from a police department, so they hadn’t actually looked at it. Now, it seems, they had.
In that conversation on Sunday with New York detectives and FBI agents, Mangione’s mother said that the person in NYPD’s surveillance photos could be her son, sources told ABC.
New York police also said on Friday that they now believe Mangione left New York City by train from Penn Station instead of by bus from the George Washington Bridge bus terminal, about a 30 minute subway ride away.
After the December 4 shooting in Midtown Manhattan, the gunman fled into an alley and rode a bike through Central Park. Shortly after leaving the park, he ditched the bike — which has not been found — and took a cab to the George Washington Bridge bus station, police said. Initially, they said they had not found any footage showing him leave the station, but sources said Friday they had located footage showing him leaving, although they did not say how he left or how he got to Penn Station.
From Penn Station, they said, he took a train to Philadelphia. Pennsylvania investigators say he was traveling from Philadelphia in the general direction of Pittsburgh by bus when he was captured in Altoona.
Mangione was still carrying the ghost gun investigators believe he used in the murder as well as multiple fake IDs, including the one he used to check into a New York hostel when he arrived in the city by bus on November 24.
He was also carrying a 262-word “manifesto” decrying the for-profit American health insurance system and a spiral notebook with notes providing more details about his plans for the murder.
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[Featured image: Luigi Mangione/Pennsylvania Department of Corrections]
