A judge on Monday moved back the start date of Luigi Mangione’s federal trial to January, saying the delay was necessary to accommodate his state trial scheduled to begin in September.
The judge, Margaret Garnett of Federal District Court, said she had hoped, “with perhaps undue optimism,” that Mr. Mangione’s federal trial could begin in the fall. But it would be “simply impossible,” she continued, to have Mr. Mangione and his lawyers pick a jury in his federal case while he was in state court.
“We can no longer wait to see what happens in the state case,” Judge Garnett said.
Mr. Mangione, 28, is facing parallel prosecutions in New York related to the assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive, Brian Thompson, in 2024.
In April, Judge Garnett moved the federal trial’s start date from early September to October. In doing so, she said she had taken into account the “paramount issues” in the case, including Mr. Mangione’s right to participate meaningfully in every aspect of his defense and the public’s interest in a speedy trial.
At the time, Mr. Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said the start dates of the two trials could lead to their overlapping. Ms. Friedman Agnifilo said in court that the state trial was expected to take up to six weeks, including jury selection. Judge Garnett said that she would consider pushing back the start of the federal trial if the state case were also delayed.
The same day that the judge made the comment, Mr. Mangione’s state case was moved back from June to September, highlighting what Ms. Friedman Agnifilo has called a “tug of war between two different prosecution offices.”
Judge Garnett said on Monday that the federal trial was likely to take two to three weeks and that jury selection would begin in earnest on Jan. 5, after Mr. Mangione’s state trial concludes to ensure he is given the “best opportunity” at a fair trial in both courts. Opening statements in the federal case are scheduled to begin on Jan. 25.
Mr. Mangione is accused of killing Mr. Thompson on the morning of Dec. 4, 2024. Surveillance footage showed a man in a hooded sweatshirt emerge from between parked cars, point a handgun affixed with a silencer and fire at Mr. Thompson as he walked toward the entrance of a Hilton hotel in Midtown.
The killing, and the footage, launched a manhunt for the assailant, who had fled the scene. Mr. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., five days later on the morning of Dec. 9, 2024. When officers approached him, he was sitting with a backpack next to him and scrolling on a laptop.
Mr. Mangione was indicted on four charges in his federal case, including two stalking counts, a firearms offense and one count of using a firearm to commit murder, which carries a maximum sentence of death. Earlier this year, Judge Garnett dismissed two of the charges, including the one that carried the death penalty.
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