A judge has decided to throw out the top counts in Luigi Mangione’s state murder case, rejecting claims that the accused killer could be charged as a terrorist in what is being called a huge blow to prosecutors.
In the recently released ruling today, Judge Gregory Carro tossed out the charges of murder in the first degree as an act of terrorism and murder in the second degree of terrorism against the 27-year-old Ivy League grad.
The judge kept alive his other second-degree murder charge for allegedly executing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in cold blood outside his health care company’s investor conference on December 4, 2024.
The People presented enough evidence that the defendant murdered Brian Thompson in a premeditated and calculated execution. This doesn’t mean that the defendant did so with terrorist intention, Carro added in his shocking decision.
This ruling does mean that Mangione faces up to 25 years in prison in regards to the state case, but not the 25 years to life without the possibility of parole that he had been facing before.
Mangione also still faces separate federal charges, which carry a possible death sentence.