Luigi Mangione withdrew a proposed psychiatric defense in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson just hours before he would have been required to provide prosecutors with additional information about his mental condition Thursday.Lawyers for Mangione, 28, sent a one-sentence letter to the court, telling Judge Gregory Carro that they were withdrawing a notice made public just a day earlier that signaled plans to pursue a psychiatric-based defense in his state case.There was no explanation.The about-face may have been Mangione's idea, according to Randolph Rice, a Maryland-based attorney and legal analyst who has been following the case.FOX TRUE CRIME IS NOW ON FACEBOOKLuigi Mangione appears at a pretrial hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on June 17, 2026.
Mangione is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Bryan Thompson in December 2024.(Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Pool)"He might have had a change of heart and said, 'Wait a second, I'm going into state court.
I'm admitting that I did this.How is this going to play when I'm facing even more serious charges in federal court in January of next year?'" Rice told Fox News Digital Friday.LUIGI MANGIONE BAILS ON PSYCHIATRIC DEFENSE IN UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO ASSASSINATION CASEThe daring move would have required Mangione to concede that he shot Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, at trial.
If he were later convicted under New York's extreme emotional disturbance law, the murder charge would be reduced to manslaughter, and the potential sentence would be reduced from 25 years to life in prison to five to 25 years.Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is shown in an undated portrait provided by UnitedHealth.He was shot and killed on his way to an investor conference in New York City in what prosecutors described as a politically motivated assassination.
(AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)Speaking with Fox News Digital before Mangione's reversal, high-profile criminal defense atto...