Manhattan DA seeks July trial for Luigi Mangiones state murder case with federal trial set in September

Manhattan prosecutors urged a judge on Wednesday to set a July trial date in Luigi Mangione’s state murder case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, two months before jury selection in his federal death penalty case.In a letter, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann asked Judge Gregory Carro to begin the New York trial on July 1, arguing that the state’s interests “would be unfairly prejudiced by an unnecessary delay” until after the federal trial.The state trial hasn’t been scheduled and the next hearing isn’t until May, when Carro is expected to rule on a defense request to exclude certain evidence that prosecutors say connects Mangione to the killing.The Manhattan district attorney’s office raised the scheduling issue days after U.S.District Judge Margaret Garnett scheduled jury selection in the federal case for Sept.

8, with the rest of the trial happening in October or January, depending on whether she allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty.If the death penalty is still in play, the second phase of the federal trial — including opening statements and testimony — will begin Jan.11, 2027, Garnett said in court last Friday.

If it’s not, it will start Oct.13.Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, called the district attorney’s request for a July state trial “unrealistic.” The defense will need the rest of the year to prepare for the federal trial, she said.Federal prosecutors declined to comment.In his letter to Carro, Seidemann argued that state prosecutors were involved in the investigation from the start while federal prosecutors joined the case about two weeks after Thompson’s death, jumping in to charge Mangione a day after he was indicted in state court.“It is entirely natural then that the state case would proceed to trial prior to the federal case,” the prosecutor wrote, citing legal precedent.

The state, he said, “has an overriding interest in trying this defendant for the cold-bloode...