The person accused of fatally taking pictures the CEO of UnitedHealthcare pleaded not responsible on Monday to homicide and terror expenses in a state case that can run parallel to his federal prosecution.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was shackled and seated in a Manhattan court docket when he leaned over to a microphone to enter his plea. The Manhattan district lawyer formally charged him final week with a number of counts of homicide, together with homicide as an act of terrorism.

His preliminary look in New York’s state’s trial court docket was preempted by federal prosecutors bringing their very own expenses over the taking pictures. 

Prosecutors have mentioned the 2 circumstances will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state expenses anticipated to go to trial first.

Authorities say Mangione gunned down Brian Thompson as he was strolling to an investor convention in midtown Manhattan on the morning of December 4.

Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s after a five-day search, carrying a gun that matched the one used within the taking pictures and a pretend ID, police mentioned. He additionally was carrying a pocket book expressing hostility towards the medical insurance business and particularly rich executives, based on federal prosecutors.

At a information convention saying the state expenses final Tuesday, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg mentioned the appliance of the terrorism legislation mirrored the severity of a “horrifying, well-planned, focused homicide that was meant to trigger shock and a spotlight and intimidation.”

“In its most elementary phrases, this was a killing that was meant to evoke terror,” he added. “And we’ve seen that response.”

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, an lawyer for Mangione, has accused federal and state prosecutors of advancing conflicting authorized theories. In federal court docket final week, she referred to as their strategy “very complicated” and “extremely uncommon.”

Mangione is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside a number of different high-profile defendants, together with Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried.

Mangione was extradited from Pennsylvania on Thursday and rapidly rushed to New York Metropolis, the place he was seen sporting an orange jumpsuit as he was led away from a helicopter by closely armed law enforcement officials and New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams mentioned he hoped to ship a message to the suspect: “I needed to look him within the eye and say you carried out this terroristic act in my metropolis — town that the individuals of New York love,” the mayor advised an area TV station. “I needed to be there to indicate the symbolism of that.”

An Ivy-league graduate from a distinguished Maryland household, Mangione appeared to have minimize himself off from household and buddies in current months. He posted steadily in on-line boards about his struggles with again ache. He was by no means a UnitedHealthcare shopper, based on the insurer.

Thompson, a married father of two high-schoolers, had labored on the big UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and have become CEO of its insurance coverage arm in 2021.

The killing has prompted some to voice their resentment at US well being insurers, with Mangione serving as a stand-in for frustrations over protection denials and hefty medical payments. It additionally has despatched shockwaves by way of the company world, rattling executives who say they’ve obtained a spike in threats.