Luigi Mangione latest: Judge could rule if death penalty stays on the table
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court, December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The judge overseeing Luigi Mangione’s federal case may decide on Friday if the death penalty will remain a sentencing option if he’s convicted.
Mangione, who is accused of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan in December 2024, will return to the federal courtroom on Friday. He has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges.
The defense argued that stalking “fails to qualify as a crime of violence” and therefore cannot be the predicate to make Mangione eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted of the federal charges. The defense also argued that the decision to seek the death penalty was political and circumvented the federal government’s protocols.
Judge Margaret Garnett has said Mangione would stand trial for the federal case in January 2027 if capital punishment remains on the table, and that the federal trial would begin in October if the death penalty is taken off the table. Either way, she set jury selection for Sept. 8.
Federal prosecutors contend the Altoona Police Department’s search followed departmental procedures. Mangione’s lawyers have argued the backpack search was illegal and police should not have had immediate access to the items inside, including the alleged murder weapon, a notebook and writings.
In making their case for a July 1 state trial, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said the state has a “deep interest” in upholding the right to life, maintaining public order and delivering justice for Thompson’s family.
U.S. Marines land at the objective point during a simulated bilateral small boat raid at Kin Blue Training Area, Okinawa, Japan, Feb. 26, 2026. (U.S. Marine Corps)
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon’s decision to send the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, a 2,200-troop force, to the Middle East is fueling new speculation about whether the conflict with Iran couldinvolve U.S. ground troops, a step that would mark a dramatic escalation and potentially push the already unpopular war into a far more dangerous phase.
It could take up to two weeks, or the end of March, before the unit is in place and its presence unlikely to significantly shift the dynamics of the war on its own, experts say. A Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) can deliver an initial surge of troops quickly, but seizing and holding key terrain, or sustaining a prolonged fight, would almost certainly require a far larger ground force.
Experts say the MEU would likely be used to conduct raids across the Iranian shoreline to gain a foothold in areas across the crucial oil shipping waterway, the Strait of Hormuz, which has emerged as a contested point of the conflict.
A Quinnipiac University poll from earlier this month showed 74% of registered voters opposed sending U.S. ground troops into Iran while 20% supported it.
Asked Tuesday if he was afraid of the Iranian regime’s assertion that U.S. boots on the ground “will be another Vietnam,” President Donald Trump replied, “No, I’m not afraid. I’m really not afraid of anything.”
Sailing from the Pacific, it will likely take up to two weeks for Marines to be in place in the Middle East, and it is not yet clear what those troops would be used for. The unit operates as a self-contained, sea-based force — essentially a floating hub capable of launching troops, aircraft and equipment without relying on nearby bases or infrastructure.
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz would unlock a waterway through which 20% of the globe’s oil supply transits each day. Its closure has seen gas prices soar and markets roiled. Trump has referenced shorelines from which the Iranians can attack vessels transiting the waterway.
“Now we are pounding that area, that coast, as you know, left side,” Trump said Monday. “We’re pounding it like really pounding it hard.”
According to Michael Eisenstadt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, the MEU could take part in land-based “raids” on targets along that coast.
“There’s a number of missions where you can conceivably see a MEU playing a role, either unilaterally or kind of in conjunction with maybe the deployment of larger Army units,” said Eisenstadt, who believes the deployment of the MEU was likely related to the strait.
Iranian fortifications along the coast that could “interfere with convoy operations,” Eisenstadt said, could be U.S. targets. Top military leaders have said they’ve explored the potential uses of convoys, or warship escorts, to facilitate the safe passage of commercial shipping through the strait.
Raiding parties could target missile storage bunkers that are hardened and difficult for U.S. warplanes to destroy from the air.
The idea would be to “clear out the shore and then use air power to prevent them from returning once you’ve cleared out those areas,” Eisenstadt said.
Such an operation would not by itself create conditions for smooth sailing in the strait, experts told ABC News.
“My concern is that it takes so little to disrupt the shipping industry, Eisenstadt said. “If there’s a small, you know, kind of a small residual [Iranian] capability, it could still potentially be very disruptive.”
The 2,200 Marines in the MEU would limit any operation longer than a raid, which have pre-planned withdrawals. To get on land, these types of Marine units primarily seize footholds by riding small watercraft onto beaches or by helicopter insertion.
“Normally in an amphibious assault, you have all sorts of Navy landing craft behind you to sustain the force ashore. There’s none of that. There’s none of that logistical tail that would allow them to remain ashore,” said retired Marine Col. Steve Ganyard, an ABC News contributor.
Leaving strategic waters in the Pacific
The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit is primarily based in Japan, where it routinely trains with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces on skills in high demand across the Pacific, including rapidly seizing small islands. Earlier this month, it took part in a major annual exercise that featured amphibious assault drills, marksmanship training and operations focused on capturing hostile terrain, according to the Defense Department.
Their removal from the region removes one of the primary ground combat elements in the Pacific, which could respond to a crisis with China or North Korea. Other significant combat elements in the region include the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, stationed to bolster South Korea’s frontline against Pyongyang, as well as the Army’s 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska.
“That leaves a ground combat and amphibious capability gap in the region,” Carlton Haelig, an expert in military operations and fellow at the Center for New American Security, said.
The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based out of Camp Pendleton, California, is preparing to deploy to the Pacific, according to Pentagon imagery.
According to an FBI affidavit, the building sustained “extensive” damage, rendering it “inoperable for an indefinite period of time.”
The suspect, identified by the FBI as Stephen Spencer Pittman, allegedly laughed about the attack, telling his father “he finally got them” and referring to the place of worship as the “synagogue of Satan,” according to the affidavit.
Pittman is charged with arson of property used in interstate commerce or used in an activity affecting interstate commerce, according to the criminal complaint.
The fire occurred around 3 a.m. on Saturday at the historic Beth Israel Congregation temple in Jackson, the same synagogue that was bombed in 1967 by the Ku Klux Klan, officials said. The FBI said the building also houses the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL).
“The ISJL operates in interstate and foreign commerce as it provides services to Jewish communities” in 13 different states, including Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, according to the affidavit, and also “provides comprehensive religious school programs to 70 Jewish congregations and offers traveling rabbinical services,” most of which “are delivered in states outside the State of Mississippi.”
Pittman’s father contacted the FBI and “advised his son confessed to setting the building on fire,” according to the affidavit, and allegedly sent text messages to his father about the blaze, saying he was “due for a homerun” and “I did my research,” according to the affidavit.
Pittman allegedly admitted to stopping to purchase gasoline, taking his license plate off of his car, breaking a window at the synagogue, pouring the gasoline inside of the building and using a torch lighter to start the fire, according to the affidavit.
“Pittman was identified as a person of interest and ultimately confessed to lighting a fire inside the building due to the building’s Jewish ties,” according to the affidavit.
Security video from inside the building “showed the fire was started by an individual inside the building in the early morning hours of January 10, 2026,” according to the affidavit.
“A hooded individual can be seen walking in the interior of the building pouring contents from what appeared to be a gas container,” the affidavit also said.
Flowers and photographs are seen at a memorial dedicated to the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on June 3, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Gonzales, who is charged with 29 counts of child endangerment, is alleged to have neglected his duty and training during the chaotic response to the shooting, which left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Prosecutor Bill Turner spoke softly and on the verge of tears at the start of his opening argument. His statement marked the first time prosecutors have provided their rationale for charging Gonzales, disclosing that a teacher came face-to-face with gunman Salvador Ramos before Ramos entered the school, and she tried to warn Gonzales.
“She’s face-to face with the gunman, and he fires on her, and she turns to run, and when she turns to run, she trips and she falls. And when she gets up, Adrian Gonzalez, the police officer, is there,” Turner said. “She says, ‘He’s over there.’ She urges him to go get him.”
“He gets on the radio and says, ‘Shots are fired, he’s wearing black, he’s in the parking lot,'” Turner said. “He knows where he is, but Adrian Gonzalez remains at the south side of the school.”
As Turner walked the jury through the tragic minutes that followed that encounter — describing the number of gunshots fired by Ramos as Gonzales allegedly waited outside — Turner hammered at the point that Gonzales allegedly stayed where he was, rather than try to stop the shooting.
Ramos “fired shots into a classroom full of children … Adrian Gonzalez remains,” he said.
Despite nearly 400 officers responding to the shooting, law enforcement took 77 minutes to mount a counterassault to kill Ramos.
Judge Sid Harle seated a full jury after an emotionally fraught selection process on Monday. Dozens of potential jurors voiced frustration with the police response, and more than 100 excused themselves from the process, saying they did not believe they could be fair and impartial.
“They were only protecting themselves more than they were protecting the children,” one dismissed juror told the court, as others cheered and clapped in agreement. “I would have sacrificed myself to save them, but they didn’t. They just sat there.”
Gonzales has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers argue he is being scapegoated for a broader law enforcement failure. During the jury selection process, some voiced frustration that more officers have not been charged in the years following the tragedy.
“Are you saying this man is the whole problem? You are sticking it on his shoulders alone?” one dismissed juror remarked. “How many of them were out there? They should all be sitting there with him.”
Gonzales was charged last year, along with former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo, the on-site commander on the day of the shooting. Arredondo’s trial has been indefinitely postponed due to a pending civil lawsuit after the members of an elite tactical unit with the U.S. Border Patrol refused to speak with prosecutors about their involvement that day.
The Gonzales case marks the second time in U.S. history that prosecutors have sought to hold a member of law enforcement criminally accountable for their response to a mass shooting. In 2023, a Florida jury acquitted Scot Peterson, a former Broward County sheriff’s deputy, who was charged with child neglect and culpable negligence for his alleged inaction during the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Peterson’s lawyers argued his role as an armed school resource officer did not amount to a caregiving post needed to prove child neglect in Florida, and that the response to the shooting was muddled by poor communication.
According to Bob Jarvis, a professor of law at Nova Southeastern University, prosecutors in the Gonzales case are likely to face the same legal hurdles that doomed the Peterson case.
“What you’re really trying to do,” he said, “is argue … that being a coward is a crime, and that is very, very difficult.”
