Luigi Mangione‘s prominent family was in talks to attend the court hearing in which he pleaded guilty to killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A newly unsealed transcript from a closed-door August 6 conference in Mangione’s federal case reveals the 28-year-old’s legal team had been preparing for the possibility of his family making their first appearance in court since his December 2024 arrest.
“Are you expecting any of Mr. Mangione’s family to attend the plea?” U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett asked Mangione’s defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, according to court documents exclusively obtained by Us.
“I’m in discussions with them about that,” Friedman Agnifilo responded at the time. “If they do, there would only be two people.”
Friedman Agnifilo did not name either of the relatives who had considered attending the August 14 hearing, but they ultimately chose to remain out of the spotlight. Several members of Thompson’s family, however, did appear in court when Mangione confessed to stalking and fatally shooting the 50-year-old executive outside of a New York City hotel over his grievances with the U.S. health insurance industry.
Us has reached out to Mangione’s lawyers for comment on why his family opted not to attend his plea hearing.
Mangione’s affluent family — who have been involved in local business, philanthropy and politics in his home state of Maryland for decades — spoke out only once after the Ivy League graduate was arrested in Pennsylvania following a five-day manhunt.
“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media,” they said in a joint statement shared via Facebook by his cousin, Baltimore City Council member Nino Mangione. “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news.”
After a solo backpacking trip across Asia, Luigi went off the grid around June 2024, six months before he murdered Thompson. He stopped posting on social media and ceased communication with his friends and family, including his parents, Louis and Kathleen Mangione, and his sisters, MariaSanta and Luciana. His mother reported him missing that November, telling police that she had not heard from him since July.
Two weeks later, Luigi shot Thompson using a 3D-printed handgun while the CEO was walking to UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Luigi admitted in court on August 14 that prior to the incident, he had emailed the multibillion-dollar company posing as an investor so that he could get information about the conference. Fed up with years of “severe pain” that he had experienced “from a broken back,” he then traveled to New York “with the intent to shoot Brian Thompson.”
Luigi, who initially maintained his innocence, faces a maximum of life in prison after pleading guilty to federal stalking charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 18. Luigi was also hit with several state charges, but his trial has been postponed indefinitely after his lawyers argued that double jeopardy laws should bar him from being tried twice for the same offense.
