Luigi Mangione speaks out in court as his state trial is tentatively set for June
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 18, 2025 in New York City. Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione spoke out in court on Friday as Judge Gregory Carro tentatively scheduled his state murder case to begin on June 8.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett announced that Mangione’s federal trial will begin with jury selection on Sept. 8 and opening statements on Oct. 13. But Carro said Friday that he believes the state case should go to trial first.
“It appears that the federal government has reneged on their agreement to let the state, who did most of the work in this case, to go first,” he remarked at the beginning of the hearing.
Carro ended the hearing with a stern directive to defense lawyers, who repeatedly pushed back on the June 8 trial date.
“You have done a great job, so be ready on June 8,” Carro told the defense. “That’s it.”
Seconds later, Mangione himself protested the judge’s decision as he was escorted out of court.
Mangione, shackled and wearing tan jail attire, looked toward the gallery and loudly said, “One plus one is two. Double jeopardy, by any common-sense definition.”
Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo repeatedly argued during the hearing that the June date would leave them unprepared and would be unfair to Mangione.
“The defense will not be ready on June 8,” she said. “Mr. Mangione is being put in an untenable situation that is a tug of war between two different prosecution officers.”
Prosecutor Joel Seidemann responded by arguing that the defense is trying to deprive [them] of a right to try the case” by creating a double jeopardy issue.
“It is absolutely unfair that Mr. Seidemann wants two bites of the apple,” Friedman Agnifilo said. “New York state has a double jeopardy law for a reason.”
“Counsel is seeking to jeopardize us out of the federal case,” Seidemann responded. “We have every reason to be the prosecuting authority.”
Seidemann argued that state prosecutors and investigators have done the bulk of the investigation and should be able to try a murder that took place on the streets of Manhattan. He claimed that the family of the victim, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, requested that the state case go first.
“That’s something certainly to be considered,” Seidemann said.
While Carro suggested that defense lawyers could resolve the conflict by asking the federal judge to delay the federal case, Friedman Agnifilo said she would not do so.
“It would be legal malpractice for us to do something that is not in our client’s best interest,” she said. “We have been working round the clock in both cases, fighting both cases.”
Carro said he could push the trial date to Sept. 8 if the Department of Justice decides to appeal a ruling in Mangione’s federal case.
Mangione, who is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel in December 2024, has pleaded not guilty to the state and federal charges. The federal judge last week took the death penalty off the table in the federal case.
A memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults murdered on May 24, 2022 during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School is seen on January 06, 2026 in Uvalde, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) — A Robb Elementary School teaching aide testified that she repeatedly urged Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales to intervene in the shooting, but said he did “nothing” in those crucial moments.
Melodye Flores testified on Wednesday that she saw gunman Salvador Ramos before he entered the school and tried to tell Gonzales his location.
“I told him that he needed to get stopped before he went into the fourth-grade building,” she testified.
“And what did he say?” prosecutor Bill Turner asked.
“He, just, nothing,” Flores said.
“Did you say it more than once?” Turner asked.
“I did,” Flores said, telling jurors she urged Gonzales to intervene two or three times.
Prosecutors allege Gonzales, who is charged with child endangerment, did not follow his training and endangered the 19 students who died and an additional 10 surviving students.
Gonzales, no longer an officer, has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers argue he is being unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement failure that day. It took 77 minutes before law enforcement mounted a counterassault to end the May 24, 2022, rampage.
Flores testified that she was eating lunch in her classroom when she learned about the shooter over a school radio. She said she ran outside because she knew that some students were on the playground and potentially in danger.
After warning some students, Flores said she spotted the gunman near the south door of the school.
“He was wearing all black and a hoodie … that’s when he started shooting,” she said.
Flores said she started running away and tripped, and incorrectly thought she was shot.
She testified that she saw Gonzales drive up to her right after she tripped, and she tried to inform the officer about the shooter’s location.
“I said that he was heading into the fourth-grade building, and we needed to stop him. We needed to go in and stop him before he went in,” she said.
“I just kept pointing. ‘He’s going in there, he’s going to the fourth-grade building,'” she told jurors.
“Did you hear anything from this gunman while you were talking to the police officer?” Turner asked.
“Just kept hearing shots,” she said.
Flores said that Gonzales did not respond to her warnings.
“I kept telling him that he needed to be stopped,” she said.
“When you told the officer to go in, did he go in?” Turner asked.
“No,” she said.
“What did he do?” Turner asked.
“He just stayed there,” she said.
Flores said she left Gonzales and tried to help a teacher who had sheltered in her classroom.
On Tuesday, during the testimony of Texas Ranger Ricardo Guajardo, prosecutors played a lengthy interview Gonzales gave to state investigators after the shooting.
In the interview, Gonzales recalled arriving at the school as one of the first officers and learning about the shooting from a coach.
“I was going over there towards her,” he said. “I see her fall in the dust cloud. So I get to her, and I realized she’s one of the coaches.”
According to Gonzales, he learned the approximate location and a basic description of the shooter from the coach, though the shooting began before he could act.
Gonzales told investigators that he could not see the shooter, but he tried to notify others over his radio.
“I notify everybody on the radio, the best I could. And then, you know, as soon as I start walking over there, I see the rounds come out of the window,” he said.
Gonzales also described trying to enter the school with four other officers, though they retreated after two were hit by gunfire.
“Everybody flew back, you know, so I think he got hit,” he said. “We kind of moved back.”
Two months before the shooting, Gonzales taught a course about responding to active shooters, according to testimony from Teresa Zamarripa, the officer manager at Southwest Texas College Law Enforcement Agency.
ABC News’ Juan Renteria contributed to this report.
Ghislaine Maxwell attends an unspecified event in New York, January 13, 2000. Patrick Mcmullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Tuesday granted the Justice Department’s motion to release grand jury materials and other nonpublic evidence from the criminal case of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in order to comply with Congress’ directive to publicly release materials from the government’s files on the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer determined in his 24-page order that the Epstein Transparency Act, passed last month, “unambiguously applies” to the discovery materials provided by prosecutors to Maxwell’s defense team in connection with her criminal trial.
The ruling grants the Trump administration’s request to modify the protective order in the case to allow for the Justice Department to publicly release materials subject to certain exemptions delineated by Congress.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in 2021 on five counts of aiding Epstein in his abuse of underage girls. A substantial subset of the government’s evidence against Maxwell was made public during her three-week trial in federal court in New York.
The Epstein Transparency Act was passed by Congress last month and signed by President Donald Trump following blowback the administration received from MAGA supporters seeking the release of the materials. The law requires the Justice Department to make public all Epstein-related materials in its possession within 30 days of the bill’s passage.
The act allows the DOJ to withhold or redact records to protect the privacy of alleged victims. It also allows the attorney general to withhold records that could jeopardize an ongoing federal investigation or prosecution.
Judge Engelmayer’s order puts in place a protocol to protect victims from the inadvertent release of materials “that would identify them or otherwise invade their privacy.”
“Nothing in this Protective Order shall prohibit the Government from publicly releasing materials whose disclosure is required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Engelmayer wrote. “The restrictions of this Protective Order, however, remain in place with respect to the segregable portions of records that ‘contain personally identifiable information of victims or victims’ personal and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.'”
Emphasizing the privacy concerns of the alleged victims, Engelmayer also added a provision to the protective order that will require the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to “personally certify in a sworn declaration” that such records have been rigorously reviewed for compliance,” according to the order.
Engelmayer noted in his order that the alleged victims’ concerns about inadvertent disclosure of their names and other identifying information “have a basis in fact.” He noted that in its two applications to the court to disclose records, the Justice Department acted without prior notice to the victims.
The DOJ, Engelmayer wrote, has paid “lip service” to the victims but has “not treated them with the solicitude they deserve.”
“The certification requirement that the Court is adding to the Protective Order assures that an identifiable official within DOJ takes ownership of the sensitive and vitally important process of reviewing discovery to be publicly released. It will help assure that victims’ statutory privacy rights are protected,” the judge wrote.
Following the ruling, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garica, called on the DOJ to immediately provide those records to the committee, which has an existing bipartisan subpoena to the DOJ for all its Epstein/Maxwell investigative files.
“These files are now part of the Epstein files held by the Department of Justice, and must be turned over to the Oversight Committee in response to our subpoena, and to the public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The DOJ must comply immediately,” Garica said in a statement.
“In addition to this new ruling, a federal judge in Florida has also granted the DOJ’s request to unseal Epstein-related grand jury records from the mid-2000s, and the Committee looks forward to receiving those materials as well,” the statement said.
The DOJ previously indicated to the court that the discovery materials it seeks to make public could include, among other things, search warrant applications, financial and travel records, photographs and videos of relevant properties, immigration records, forensic reports from extractions of electronic devices, materials produced by Epstein’s estate, and reports and notes of interviews of victims and third parties.
Attorneys for Maxwell told the court last week that she took no formal position on the DOJ motion, but argued that the release of nonpublic materials would impact her ability to get a fair retrial if she were to succeed in her forthcoming habeas petition, a longshot bid for a new trial.
“Ms. Maxwell respectfully notes that shortly she will be filing a habeas petition pro se. Releasing the grand jury materials from her case, which contain untested and unproven allegations, would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial should Ms. Maxwell’s habeas petition succeed,” her lawyers wrote.
Regarding the grand jury materials, Engelmayer ruled that the Epstein Files Transparency Act overrides the federal rule of criminal procedure that governs grand jury secrecy. He also determined the act does not exempt grand jury materials from disclosure.
Engelmayer is the second judge to grant a DOJ motion to unseal grand jury testimony and other previously restricted Epstein materials, after U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith last week granted the administration’s request to lift restrictions over grand jury material related to the first federal investigation of Epstein in Florida in the mid-2000s, which ended in his non-prosecution agreement, which was widely criticized.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman is currently considering a similar request from the DOJ to allow the government to disclose materials associated with the 2019 criminal case against Epstein in Manhattan federal court. That case ended with Epstein’s death in August of 2019.
Karen Read confers with defense attorneys Robert Alessi, left, and Elizabeth Little on June 9, 2025. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — This year was full of first-of-its-kind stories that got Americans talking. Here’s a look back at some of the most talked about U.S. stories of 2025 outside of politics, from the Los Angeles wildfires to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial.
LA wildfires
The Palisades and Eaton fires erupted in Los Angeles County on Jan. 7. With severe drought conditions and strong Santa Ana winds fueling the flames, the fires spread quickly, killing at least 29 people and wiping out thousands of homes in the densely populated neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
In October, Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested for allegedly igniting a brush fire in the Pacific Palisades on Jan. 1 — a fire that prosecutors say eventually became the Palisades Fire. Rinderknecht, a former Pacific Palisades resident, has pleaded not guilty to arson affecting property, timber set afire and destruction of property.
3 back-to-back plane crashes
On Jan. 29, an American Airlines regional jet was on approach to Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when it collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, sending both aircraft plunging into the Potomac River.
All 64 people on board the plane and all three soldiers on the helicopter were killed.
The collision marked the nation’s first major commercial airline crash since 2009.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not released its final report, which will determine the probable cause of the crash, but investigators said during a July hearing that the Black Hawk pilots likely didn’t know how high they were flying or how close they were to the plane due to faulty altimeters inside the aircraft. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters, “It’s possible there was zero pilot error here.”
After the crash, Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation called the ROTOR Act. The law would require nearly all aircraft to transmit Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B), a system which allows aircraft to transmit their location to other aircraft as well as air traffic controllers. It would also close a loophole that allows military aircraft to operate without ADSB-Out. The ROTOR Act is awaiting a vote in the Senate.
The NTSB is expected to reveal the probable cause and its recommendations in late January.
Just two days after the D.C. crash, a medical transport jet crashed in Philadelphia. The jet, which was carrying a child and her mother along with four other people, was in the air for less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport. All six people on board, as well as one person on the ground, were killed. The NTSB has not released a cause.
Then on Feb. 17, a Delta plane crashed and overturned during landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. All 80 people on board survived. Twenty-one passengers were injured, including two seriously injured.
A report released in March found that the right main landing gear broke and collapsed on impact as the plane landed at a high descent rate. Once the right main landing gear collapsed, the wing hit the runway, sprayed fuel and caused a fire. The Transportation Board of Canada has not yet released a probable cause for this crash.
Gene Hackman and his wife die in their home
When actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead at their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home during a Feb. 26 welfare check, their causes of death were not immediately clear, which sparked national intrigue.
In March, investigators announced that Arakawa, 65, died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare disease transmitted through rodent urine, droppings or saliva, officials said.
Hackman, 95, who died of cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s disease, was likely home with his deceased wife for one week before he died, officials said. Arakawa died around Feb. 12, while Hackman died around Feb. 18, officials said.
Hackman “was in an advanced state of Alzheimer’s, and it’s quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased,” an investigator said.
One of the couple’s three dogs was also found dead in a crate during the welfare check. The dog likely died of dehydration and starvation, a report found.
Karen Read’s trial
On June 18, a Massachusetts jury found Karen Read not guilty of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend, ending a criminal case that gripped the nation’s attention.
While Read was acquitted of the most serious charges — including second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene after an accident resulting in death — the jury did find her guilty of operating under the influence of liquor. The judge immediately sentenced her to one-year probation, the standard for a first-time offense.
The first criminal case against Read ended in a mistrial last year.
Prosecutors alleged Read hit her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with her car outside the home of a fellow police officer after a night of heavy drinking in 2022 and then left him to die there during a blizzard. The defense had argued that Read’s vehicle did not hit O’Keefe and instead said O’Keefe was attacked by a dog and beaten by other people who were in the house before he was thrown outside in the snow to die.
Texas flooding
In the early hours of July 4, heavy rain inundated Texas’ Hill Country region, quickly sparking catastrophic flooding.
Over 130 people were killed, including at least 117 in Kerr County, officials said. More than two dozen of the victims were from Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls sleepaway camp in Kerr County.
Some state leaders and environmental experts told ABC News in July that a number of the cabins were in known flood zones and close proximity to the river, according to officials and FEMA’s road maps.
In September, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law three bills aimed at improving the safety of camps in Texas and protecting Texans from future flooding events, after parents of Camp Mystic flooding victims advocated before the state legislature for better safety measures.
In October, legislative committees were formed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives Dustin Burrows to investigate the flooding. No investigative findings have been announced as of December.
In November, a slew of wrongful death cases were filed against Camp Mystic on behalf of many of the parents who lost their children. The families previously criticized Camp Mystic’s decision to reopen one of its campsites next year.
In a December letter to parents, Camp Mystic officials said they plan to implement safety measures that are not only in compliance of the new camp safety laws, but “exceed their requirements.” The camp’s partial reopening is slated for summer 2026.
Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty
Weeks before Bryan Kohberger was set to go on trial for the 2022 quadruple homicides at the University of Idaho, Kohberger admitted to the crimes at a change of plea hearing in July.
At sentencing, Kohberger was given four consecutive life sentences on the four first-degree murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count.
Survivors of the attack and relatives of the four slain students spoke out, sharing emotional statements at Kohberger’s sentencing hearing. Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen said Kohberger “took away my ability to trust the world around me” and “shattered me in places I didn’t know could break.” Kristi Goncalves, mom of victim Kaylee Goncalves, told Kohberger that “hell will be waiting” for him.
The judge acknowledged Kohberger’s motive may never be known.
Sean Combs’ trial
Following an eight-week trial in Manhattan federal court that gripped the country, in July, music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted of two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution. The jury acquitted Combs of more serious sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
At October’s sentencing hearing, Combs tearfully apologized in court, saying, “I’ve been humbled and broken to my core.”
The mogul is now serving a four-year sentence at FCI Fort Dix, a federal prison in New Jersey. Combs is appealing the conviction and his sentence.
It began on May 30 when Decker picked up his three daughters at his ex-wife’s home for a planned visitation.
On May 31, police announced the disappearance of the three daughters: Paityn, 9; Evelyn, 8; and Olivia, 5.
On June 2, the girls’ bodies were found near a campground. Decker allegedly suffocated his daughters to death, police said.
Decker, a former member of the military with “extensive training,” disappeared, sparking a multi-agency manhunt.
An attorney for Decker’s ex-wife told ABC News that Decker lacked mental health resources and struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder.
On Sept. 18, Decker’s remains were found in a remote, wooded area. The local coroner said an autopsy couldn’t be done due to how little remains were left.
Menendez brothers resentenced, but denied parole and denied new trial
In their continued push for freedom this year, Lyle and Erik Menendez had one big legal win, but two significant losses.
The brothers were convicted in 1996 of the first-degree murder of their parents and sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole. The last several years, they’ve pushed to be released, citing accomplishments in prison and the abuse they alleged they suffered from their parents.
This May, Judge Michael Jesic resentenced Erik and Lyle Menendez to 50 years to life in prison, making them immediately eligible for parole under youth offender parole laws. Jesic said he was moved by letters from prison guards and is amazed by what the brothers have accomplished in their decades behind bars.
But in August, the brothers were both denied parole. Commissioners reviewed Erik Menendez’s time in prison and noted some inappropriate behavior with visitors, drug smuggling, misuse of state computers, violent incidents and illegal cellphone use. Lyle Menendez’s panel of commissioners — who were different from those reviewing Erik’s case — noted he also was caught illegally using cellphones. The brothers will next be eligible for parole in three years.
Their second loss came in September, when Judge William Ryan denied the brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 to try to toss their conviction and get a new trial based on newly discovered evidence. The judge said “neither piece of evidence adds to the allegations of abuse that the jury already considered.”
Charlie Kirk killed
On Sept. 10, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in the middle of his outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Kirk, 31, was the founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, and the Utah Valley event marked the first stop of his “The American Comeback Tour,” which invited students on college campuses to debate hot-button issues.
Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, said at her husband’s memorial that she forgives Robinson. “That young man, I forgive him. … The answer to hate is not hate,” she said.
Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child. He has not entered a plea.
Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner killed
On Dec. 14, renowned Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home.
Hours later, the suspect — the couple’s 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner — was taken into custody.
Nick Reiner — who was living on his parents’ property, according to a former family security guard — was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, with the special circumstance of multiple murders, prosecutors said. He has not entered a plea. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, prosecutors said.
“The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends,” they said.
“We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life,” Jake and Romy Reiner said. “We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”
ABC News’ Olivia Osteen, Meredith Deliso, Clara Mcmichael, Ayesha Ali and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
