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.
Mohammad Alokozay is shown in this Nov. 25 2025, booking photo. Tarrant County Corrections Center
(FORT WORTH, Texas) — Homeland Security said investigators arrested an Afghan national who allegedly made a social media post about “building a bomb” and threatened to blow up a building in Fort Worth, Texas.
Mohammad Dawood Alokozay’s arrest took place on Nov. 25, Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary with DHS, said in a social media post Saturday.
Alokozay was arrested on state terror charges and is being held at a corrections center in Tarrant County, Texas, according to court records. He was hit with federal charges of transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce.
After his arrest one week ago, Alokozay confirmed to investigators that he made the statements in the video and that he deleted his TikTok account after being contacted by people who had seen his comments shared on social media, according to the criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.
“He concluded that he was not afraid of deportation or getting killed,” prosecutors said in their criminal complaint. “When asked why Alokozay came to the United States, he responded that it was to kill the others on the call. Alokozay stated he wanted to conduct a suicide attack on Americans, too.”
It is not immediately clear when Alokozay will make his first appearance in federal court.
Alokozay’s arrest came just a day before two National Guard members were allegedly shot by another Afghan national — 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal– in Washington, D.C.
One of the Guard members, U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, later died from her injuries. Lakanwal is now facing a first-degree murder charge.
McLaughlin alleged in an X post that Alokozay “posted a video of himself on TikTok indicating he was building a bomb with an intended target of the Fort Worth area.”
“He was arrested on Tuesday by the Texas Department of Public Safety and FBI JTTF and charged with making Terroristic Threats,” she added.
Attorney information for Alokozay was not immediately available.
McLaughlin said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a retainer for Alokozay.
-ABC News’ Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.
Brian Walshe, accused of murdering wife Ana Walshe on Jan. 1, 2023, is lead into his hearing at Norfolk Superior Court. (Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
(DEDHAM, Mass.) —Brian Walshe was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a Massachusetts jury found him guilty of killing and dismembering his wife, the mother of their three children, with the judge calling his acts “barbaric and incomprehensible.”
His wife, Ana Walshe, went missing on Jan. 1, 2023, at the age of 39. Her body has not been found.
Brian Walshe, 50, pleaded guilty last month to improperly disposing of her body and lying to police following her disappearance. He had changed his plea on the two charges before jury selection got underway for the trial, while maintaining that he did not kill her.
A Norfolk County jury found Brian Walshe guilty of first-degree murder on Monday, after deliberating for approximately six hours over two days.
He faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder.
Judge Diane Freniere said that the sentence, the only appropriate sentence under the law, is “immensely appropriate and just, given your murderous acts and the life trauma that you’ve inflicted upon your own children.”
She said that because of his lies to police, “thousands of hours of investigative resources were wasted, diverted from other deserving cases,” and that his “acts in dismembering your wife’s body and disposing of her remains in multiple area dumpsters can only be described as barbaric and incomprehensible.”
“You had no regard for the lifelong mental harm that your criminal acts inflicted on your then 2-, 4- and 6-year-old sons,” she said, noting that they will “never being able to properly grieve that loss to say goodbye to their mom.”
She handed down consecutive sentences on the three counts, with up to 20 years for lying to police and up to three years for illegally conveying his wife’s body.
Ana Walshe’s sister addressed the court ahead of sentencing, saying the “incomprehensible act” has left her and their mother with an “unbearable emptiness.”
Her sister, Aleksandra Dimitrijevic, asked the court to consider the “long-lasting” impact her murder will have on her children in handing down the sentence.
“The most painful part of this loss is knowing her children must now grow up without their mother’s hand to hold,” she said. “They now face a lifetime of milestones, big and small, where her absence will be deeply and painfully felt.”
The Commonwealth argued that each of the three charges “calls for a harsh penalty” and asked that he be sentenced consecutively, while the defense responded that consecutive sentences would be “inappropriate and inhumane.”
Prosecutor Greg Connor suggested the word inhumane “describes the defendant’s actions and the depravity of his actions, of murdering his wife, dismembering her and getting rid of her remains by throwing her away like garbage.”
Connor said those actions deprived Ana Walshe’s family of a grave and memorial.
The judge said she had received and reviewed sentencing memorandums from prosecutors and the defense, as well as multiple written victim impact statements. One submitted on behalf of Ana Walshe’s children from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Family Services relayed the “devastating impact on her children,” the judge said.
“It’s clear to me that Ana was a bright light in the lives of many people. She lifted people up,” the judge said.
Freniere said she also considered a letter submitted by Brian Walshe’s mother on his behalf, but she said she “simply cannot reconcile the person Diana Walshe describes in her letter with the person who stands before me for sentence.”
“Mr. Walshe, you will live with the guilt and burden of Ana Walshe’s death for the rest of your life,” Freniere said before sentencing him to life in prison.
Brian Walshe did not testify during the two-week trial in Dedham, and the defense did not call any witnesses.
Defense attorneys said during the trial that Brian Walshe did not kill his wife but found her dead in bed on New Year’s Day in 2023 — calling her death sudden and unexplained — and then panicked and lied to police as they investigated her disappearance.
Prosecutors said Brian Walshe premeditatedly murdered and dismembered his wife, then disposed of her remains in dumpsters. The internet history on his devices on Jan. 1, 2023, included searches such as “best way to dispose of a body,” “how long for someone to be missing to inherit,” and “best way to dispose of body parts after a murder,” prosecutors said.
Evidence presented during the trial included surveillance footage of a man believed to be Brian Walshe buying tools and other supplies at a Lowe’s on Jan. 1, 2023. A receipt showed that items, including a hacksaw, utility knife, hammer, snips, Tyvek suit, shoeguards, rags and cleaning supplies, totaling $462, were purchased with cash.
Additional surveillance footage presented in court showed someone throwing out trash bags at dumpsters on multiple days in early January 2023.
Several blood-stained items recovered from dumpsters by investigators — including a hacksaw, a piece of rug, a towel and hairs — and an unknown tissue were linked to Ana Walshe through DNA testing, a forensic scientist from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory testified during the trial.
Ana Walshe was reported missing by her employer on Jan. 4, 2023. Brian Walshe told police at the time that she had a “work emergency” at her job in D.C. and left their Cohasset home on New Year’s Day, according to audio of his interview played in court.
Jurors heard testimony, including from a D.C. man with whom Ana Walshe was having an affair, that the mother of three was upset about being away from her young children so much — who were 2, 4 and 6 at the time — and there was stress in the marriage.
At the time, Brian Walshe and their three children were living in Massachusetts while he was awaiting sentencing in a federal fraud case after pleading guilty to a scheme to sell counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings. He was ultimately sentenced to 37 months in federal prison in that case.
Freniere said Thursday it is her understanding that the federal sentence will run concurrent with the one she imposed.
In this handout satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hurricane Melissa churns through the Caribbean Sea, captured at 15:20Z on October 28, 2025. NOAA via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — From the ground, chaos reigned across Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa as residents emerged from the storm to find their communities shattered, their homes lying in ruins along with streets left awash in mud, debris and dangling power lines.
From the air, the picture of the widespread devastation came into a sobering focus as Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness released videos on social media of his tour on Wednesday of the hardest hit areas of the western part of his country.
“The most terrifying experience of my life, and I would not want to see it again,” a staff member of the Black River Hospital told Holness as he was filmed assessing the damage to the medical facility in the coastal community.
Holness praised the hospital workers for continuing to care for patients through the horrific Category 5 storm, even when the power went out and they were forced to use flashlights and lanterns to see.
One hospital staffer described having to dodge pieces of flying glass and other debris as the storm blew out windows and shook the facility.
During a news conference Thursday morning, Daryl Vaz, the country’s minister of science, energy, telecommunications and transport, said nearly 500,000 Jamaican Public Service customers remained without power, or about 72% of the utility company’s customers.
The number of deaths from the storm was still being assessed on Thursday. The Ministry of Health and Wellness confirmed on Wednesday that at least three people died in Jamaica in storm-related incidents. Other hurricane-related deaths occurred in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, officials said.
Sen. Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s information minister, said Thursday that the Jamaica Defense Force has dedicated a helicopter to the recovery of bodies.
Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and community development, declined to provide a death toll, but said, “There has been casualties and we do anticipate based on our information that they’ll be more.”
McKenzie added, “I’ve been hearing some stories that I don’t want to repeat and I’m not going to repeat those stories because the police have not confirmed those reports.”
McKenzie said that about 13,000 people remained in shelters across Jamaica on Thursday.
Video footage taken during Prime Minister Holness’ helicopter tour of the hard-hit areas showed communities left in ruins. From the air, Holness witnessed entire neighborhoods devastated, with numerous homes missing roofs and walls. The videos showed twisted metal, splinted wood, and chunks of broken concrete strewn across the green landscape for miles.
Black River — where Hurricane Melissa, packing 185 mph winds, made landfall on Tuesday — appeared to be one of the most devastated towns that Holness encountered.
In all directions, businesses, churches and homes appeared to be damaged or destroyed.
In one of the videos, Holness told residents that 90% of the structures in Black River and nearby St. Elizabeth sustained damage.
Some coastal areas of Jamaica, including Black River, were also hit with a storm surge of up to 13 feet, officials said.
The Emergency Operation Center in Black River was also damaged, hampering search-and-rescue efforts in the area, Superintendent Coleridge Minto of the Jamaica Constabulary Force said in a video statement posted on social media Wednesday afternoon.
“We are immobile. When I say immobile, police units are down,” Minto said on Wednesday. “At this point in time, we are unable to do any rescuing; we are unable to respond. So, we are trying to let everybody know that the situation here is devastating.
Mento said all buildings in Black River sustained damage, including court offices, supermarkets and bakeries.
A container storing relief supplies was turned upside down by the storm, damaging everything inside, Minto said.
“There is urgent need for support,” Minto said.
On Wednesday, Holness posted a statement on social media, saying his nation was “ravaged” by the hurricane and its torrential rain. Holness declared the entire island nation a disaster area.
“I know many, especially those in the worst-affected parishes, are feeling disheartened,” Holness said in a social media post. “Your homes may have been damaged or destroyed, and your communities and towns no longer look the same.”
During his tour of St. Elizabeth, Holness said crews were working to clear roads covered in mud, toppled trees and power poles so that emergency crews can reach devastated areas.
On Thursday, Dixon said emergency crews on foot reached the town of Westmorland in the westernmost province of Jamaica by “cutting their way on foot through blocked roads.”
Authorities said some rural areas of the island, including the hilly and mountainous regions, received up to 49 inches of rain, triggering landslides.
Much of St. Elizabeth Parish, one of Jamaica’s largest parishes with a population of more than 150,000, was left underwater by the storm, authorities told ABC News.
The only public hospital in St. Elizabeth Parish lost power and its roof and had to be evacuated, officials said.
Search-and-rescue operations are underway across Jamaica.
All airports in Jamaica, including the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, have been closed since Monday, but some were beginning to reopen on Thursday.
Esther Pinnock, spokesperson for the Jamaica Red Cross, told ABC News on Wednesday that communication has been lost with some hard-hit communities.
“So, we’re not able to get what’s happening in such locations,” Pinnock said.
Pinnock said infrastructure across the island has been damaged and that some communities were cut off from fresh running water.
“Interventions are being made to address those concerns,” Pinnock said.
Pinnock said some areas of the island that suffered widespread damage from Melissa were still recovering from damage caused by Hurricane Beryl, a Category 5 hurricane storm that pummeled the island in July 2024.
“Emotionally and from a mental perspective, yes, we are just rebuilding our livelihood, and now we have to start all over again,” Pinnock said.
After passing across Jamaica, Hurricane Melissa took aim at Cuba, where it made landfall early Wednesday as as Category 3 storm near the the city of Chivirico in the southeastern province of Santiago de Cuba.
Images emerging from Cuba in the aftermath of the hurricane, showed collapsed structures and people digging through destroyed homes in search of survivors and personal belongings.
On Thursday morning, Melissa was still a Category 2 hurricane moving north-northeast across the Atlantic Ocean at 21 mph. It is expected to pass west of Bermuda late Thursday night and into Friday morning.
A hurricane warning has been issued for Bermuda as winds are expected to top 70 mph.
