Luigi Mangione’s day in court got off to an awkward start Monday: he got stuck in the courthouse elevator with his U.S. Marshal escorts for roughly 20 to 30 minutes, delaying the very hearing meant to push his federal trial back. Again.
When marshals finally walked Mangione into the Manhattan federal courtroom, he appeared “bemused” by the ordeal, according to the Associated Press. Dressed in beige jail clothing, he did not speak during the proceeding.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett used the hearing to formally delay Mangione’s federal trial from its previously scheduled October start to January 2027. Jury selection will now begin January 5, with opening statements and testimony following on January 25 — a roughly three-month push driven over scheduling conflicts with Mangione’s separate state murder trial, which is set to begin September 8.
“In my view it’s simply impossible to be moving through the jury selection process in this case while the defendant and his counsel are fully occupied by conducting the state trial,” Garnett said. She acknowledged she had previously hoped, with what she called “undue optimism,” to hold the federal trial this fall, but said “we can no longer wait to see what happens” in the state proceeding.
Garnett also ruled that the jury questionnaire for the federal case will not be made public until after the jury has been fully selected, and said releasing it earlier “would only make what promises to be a difficult task more difficult” given the case’s popularity.
Mangione, 28, faces two separate prosecutions stemming from the December 4, 2024 cold blooded murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was shot from behind by a masked gunman while walking to a Manhattan hotel for a UnitedHealth Group investor conference.
Police say the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” were found written on the shell casings — language widely interpreted as mimicking how health insurers describe denying patient claims.
Mangione was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, roughly 230 miles from Manhattan.
His state case includes the primary second-degree murder charge along with weapons possession and forgery counts; his federal case centers on two stalking charges, after Garnett previously took the death penalty off the table and also threw out terrorism from the state charges. Evidence including a 3D-printed pistol matching the murder weapon and a notebook in which Mangione allegedly described his intent to “wack” an insurance executive has been cleared for use at trial.
He has pleaded not guilty in both cases and faces life in prison if convicted in either.