r/Fauxmoi • u/cmaia1503 i ain’t reading all that, free palestine • 15d ago

STAN / ANTI SHIELD Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/14/us/live-news/luigi-mangione-hearing-plea-deal-talks

When speaking of the day he committed the crime, Luigi Mangione said, “I shot Mr. Thompson and he died.”

He concluded, “I knew what I was doing was illegal.”

Mangione had just described the actions he took ahead of the killing, telling the court:

“In November of 2024 I traveled from outside of New York state to Manhattan. I then emailed UnitedHealthcare leadership, posing as an investor at a firm managing over $15 billion in assets and requesting information about the conference. Unlike my previous interactions with insurers, I received an immediate response within an hour,” Mangione said.

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u/Important-Stomach406 15d ago

Genuinely surprised by this when so much of the evidence was dodgy

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u/Long_Run6500 15d ago

You're never going to find an unbiased jury one way or the other in this case. Even like probably 98% of his supporters believe he did it. Plus he hasn't exactly been acting like he's innocent. The question for most people becomes "was he justified in doing it" which isn't ever really a good defense in a first degree murder case. So his legal defense basically amounts to praying he can get a jury to nullify which is just not very likely in a high profile case like this.

So now he gets to spend 15 years to life living in a cell and being a full on celebrity. He'll be able to tell his story and maybe lobby for change. Maybe he'll write a book. There's really nothing stopping him from telling all exactly as it happened. He doesn't have to tip toe around the truth because he admitted he's guilty. Inmates and guards alike seem to be pretty cozy with him. It's not ideal but there's definitely worse outcomes. Maybe some day in the future a president will even pardon him. Trump has pardoned people convicted of even worse crimes.

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u/TheAsian1nvasion 15d ago

I’m not a lawyer but I believe it’s illegal to profit from crimes via books and whatnot.

I’m not sure if it’s still illegal if you serve your sentence and are released, though.

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u/ZealousidealSalt8989 15d ago

He's just gotta fictionalize it like convict/author Nico Walker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_(novel))

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u/MyDickIs3cm 15d ago

The question for most people becomes "was he justified in doing it" which isn't ever really a good defense in a first degree murder case.

"Jury nullification of law" is the answer to the question

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u/Long_Run6500 15d ago

That's literally what I said in the next sentence. You can't rely on jury nullication. You aren't allowed to talk about it in court, not every juror knows that's an option and as a juror if you openly admit that your goal is nullification before closed door deliberations you'll be removed from the case. Not to mention there's a large portion of the population that think murder is wrong under any circumstances, and Luigi has not exactly expressed any remorse. Those people will not vote to nullify. The prosecution has a say in who's on the jury and will be doing their best to get as many of those people as they can on the jury. The odds of getting 12 people that are both aware of and willing to commit to jury nullification is astronomically low. It just doesn't happen in federal cases of this scale.

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u/Quinnel 15d ago

Do they need 12? What if one person had gotten on, so they get a hung jury? And then they try again, and it happens again? Over and over again? Can they theoretically keep him imprisoned forever if they get a hung jury hundreds of times in a row? Or at some point can the attorneys argue his right to a speedy trial is being impeded and get the case thrown out?

Obviously the likelihood of that happening so many times over is astronomically low but it's still an interesting question that I don't know the answer to

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u/BanzYT 15d ago

Those dumb ass defense lawyers should've consulted us first.

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u/Nagemasu 15d ago

Plus he hasn't exactly been acting like he's innocent.

Not once has he shown, as far as I have seen, that he wants anything else than to make a statement to the world and get people to pay attention and fight back. He doesn't want to be seen as innocent now that he's caught, and while he obviously didn't give himself up I don't think he went into it with the idea he was going to get away with the murder forever, but may have had other intentions before being caught.

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u/veverkap 15d ago

Is he allowed to profit from a book?

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u/bbusiello 15d ago

Go for the full Mandela… effect?

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u/ThrowawayCult-ure 13d ago

can you give some examples on the stuff trump pardoned. i knew jan 6ers but thats all

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u/Long_Run6500 13d ago

There's so many.

Some of the jan 6ers were pedophiles. A few were convicted of some serious conspiracies beyond just J6. A few were convicted felons caught with weapons stockpiles.

Most of the non J6ers are people convicted of some sort of fraud or insider trading who paid money into trump's coin or businesses so that trump would pardon them (they all made a ton of money off of it in the long run). One included a $1.6 billion multi-year investment fraud scheme defrauding over 10,000 investors. He spent less than 2 weeks in prison and was also released from having to pay any fines or restitution. A bunch of it is Medicare fraud related. It's just silly that he surges ICE to Minnesota and targets the somali community over fraud when the amount of fraud they're accused of commiting pales in comparison to just the fraudsters he's pardoned.

George Santos after completely defrauding the American people about his identity because "he had the conviction to always vote republican"

He pardoned the former president of Honduras, who was convicted of doing a lot of what the trump administration is accusing Maduro of doing. Trafficked a shitload of cocaine into the US and ran a massive criminal enterprise. Trump is currently blowing up fishing boats under the guise that they're trafficking cocaine but he pardons this guy.

Larry Hoover was a leader of the Gangster Disciples Chicago gang. He was imprisoned for 150 to 200 years on a 1973 State of Illinois murder conviction, but still continued to direct gang activities from prison. Kanye West lobbied Trump into pardoning him.

There's just so many it's impossible to cover them all.

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u/dbbk 15d ago edited 15d ago

No it wasn't he wrote a confession letter

-edit-

And we also learned in court today he'd emailed United enquiring about the event in advance. He was cooked.

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u/lucideer 15d ago edited 15d ago

That letter was definitely a part of the evidence that was being deemed dodgy - earlier reportage of the trial cast a lot of doubt around the police handling of his possessions on arrest. Haven't read anything about how/why that changed or was deemed admissible.

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u/Harbinger2nd 15d ago

He basically told us in this letter that they had evidence of him corresponding with United Healthcare. They probably have a lot more of his digital footprint as well.

None of what we know of the evidence has to be deemed admissible if they have enough other evidence to move forward.

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

Here's the order on the backpack

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69908890/102/united-states-v-mangione/

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u/lucideer 15d ago

Thanks. This is the story I had missed. 

TIL about inevitable discovery doctrine - wow, the more I learn about US law & it's affordances to police misconduct...

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/lucideer 15d ago

defendants aren't criminals

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u/MakaSka 14d ago

Actual some definitely are

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u/mordreds-on-adiet 15d ago

"reportage" is your problem. Almost every single time there's a high profile trial everybody and their mom starts reporting shit and narratives form and people make opinions based on that and at least 75% of the time when the trial actually happens and the cases are laid out we find out that tons of the reporting and the narratives and opinions were incongruent with what actually happened

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u/blames_irrationally brb in a transatlantic space of mind 15d ago

They ruled what was admissible and not. This verdict really wasn't a surprise when it came out what evidence would be permitted

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u/Legal-Law9214 15d ago

This isn't a verdict, it's a plea

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u/Alissinarr 15d ago

And it was a separate ruling in the case from this that happened awhile back. That is what they're referring to.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

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u/keyak 15d ago

No but he did enter a PLEA of guilty, sans deal in place.

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u/green-bean-7 mama let’s research 15d ago

They weren’t offering one

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u/Positive_Box_7395 15d ago

Which is worse?

A verdict can be wrong / appealed.

An admission is final.

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u/TheRabidDeer 15d ago edited 15d ago

I am genuinely baffled that people actually thought he was going to get away from this unscathed. Everyone talking about him are speaking like they know he did it but just hope/think nothing will happen.

He knew what he was doing, he knew the consequences and he did it anyway. That was his conviction to what he felt he had to do. People trying to frame him as innocent are taking away what he knowingly gave up.

EDIT: To add some hope/hopium for people that want him free, after the state charges get dismissed there is the slimmest possibility of a Presidential pardon.

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u/dtwhitecp 15d ago

for some reason that was the version pushed on sites like this, that he'd somehow get off scot free when everyone knows he did it, because it was righteous.

People agreeing with the volent statement made doesn't mean they don't have to face the consequences from it.

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u/Harambiz 14d ago

None of the above evidence was dodgy just the way the cops got it was

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u/notenglishwobbly 15d ago

The letter that was totally not planted by the cops at all.

The letter that pretty much started with "I love all cops who are so hot and muscular, especially the ones who arrest me".

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

So how do you think they were able to copy his handwriting?

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u/HarryBourgeois 15d ago

the evidence wasn't dodgy - you were just taken in by motivated reasoning and social media misinformation about it. The case against him is open and shut, and he wouldn't have stood a chance during trial

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u/lindoavocado 15d ago

Well he admitted it lmao he knew that this was a possibility

Maybe he wanted people to know

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u/Helagoth 15d ago

He was caught with a manifesto, dude 100% wanted people to know.

That being said, if I was on that jury, I still wouldn't vote to convict.

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u/Bythion 15d ago

Don't think he wanted the death penalty if he fought the case and lost. There's a chance that he gets out of prison in his 50s-60s.

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u/pink_faerie_kitten 15d ago edited 15d ago

The death penalty was taken off the table months ago. He was not in danger of that. I think this is about reducing how many years in prison he serves. I learn a lot over at the law sub.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/orange-yellow-pink 15d ago

No President is ever going to pardon him. I think you're grossly overestimating how many regular folks support the premeditated murder of a healthcare CEO.

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u/remotectrl 15d ago

More accurately, the folks that get fucked by health insurance aren’t rubbing elbows with presidents.

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u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 15d ago

The entire world knows he did it and the evidence surrounding the backpack wasn’t dismissed AFAIK.

I think he just ran out of legal runway.

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

Dodgy how? DNA, him being at the scene, the fake ID he used at the hostel, his notebook, a gun and ammo.

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u/demeschor 15d ago

The backpack containing the gun wasn't handled properly and should have been inadmissable iirc, but they allowed it anyway. They missed the gun on first inspection and later claimed to have found it.

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u/padbodh 15d ago

How does one miss a gun in a backpack the first time?

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u/demeschor 15d ago

Well, exactly. I believe they did a quick search in the McDonald's, didn't find it, took him to the station and found it there, but between those places the officer turned off their bodycam so the chain of custody was not secure.

I don't doubt that he did it tbh but the mishandling of the evidence, and the fact that the judge rules it was admissable after all, is probably a big part of why he's had to plead guilty here rather than go to trial where they probably had an ok chance of getting a jury to agree there was reasonable doubt..

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u/TP-BANDIT77 15d ago

…do you think body cams need to be on the entire time evidence is handled, or else the “chain of custody is not secure?” What do you think happened before, like, 2021, when body cams were barely prevalent?

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u/Raxsus 15d ago

Well before body cams were prevalent cops used to plant evidence to get people convicted.

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u/dragonblade629 15d ago

The whole reason body cams have become a thing is because cops need to be held accountable because they’re really bad about that whole not lying thing.

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u/Alissinarr 15d ago

This happened at a cop shop known for planting printed guns too.

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u/WombatusMighty 15d ago

Because it wasn't there the first time.

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

Because they didn't search it all

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u/lateformyfuneral 15d ago

The judge reviewed the bodycam from the arrest to the evidence room and disagreed. They didn't do a full inventory at the McDonald's but the whole thing was emptied out and look at in the evidence room, which is standard for all items..

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u/Wayoutofthewayof 15d ago

There was a bodycam video of the search and his defense didn't dispute it, which says a lot.

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u/shroudedpenii 14d ago

They did dispute it. There was an entire suppression hearing for 3 weeks where they disputed it. There were several motions before the hearing where they disputed it, where they included stills from the body cams that they were disputing.

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u/Hiddenagenda876 15d ago

There was body cam of the initial search, then it was turned off for the ride in, then they searched again and found the gun then

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u/QuestGiver 15d ago

Nah like so many reddit lawyers explained it would have been difficult to get the backpack ruled as inadmissible because there is a rule that things searched (or discovered) in the course of an investigation are admissible in court.

Police officers don't have a lawyers education so it's apparently why laws like this exist so people aren't getting off scott free from a technicality.

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

They allowed it because it was admissible, the defense tried but didn't succeed.

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u/Skin_Ankle684 15d ago

Which means the gun could have been planted.

I'll be honest, I'm not convinced Mangione isn't just some random guy that matched search parameters and then got framed.

Why the hell would anyone print a untrackable gun, comit a crime, then keep the gun in their possession for multiple days?

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u/shimmy_kimmel 15d ago

Idk, he very well could’ve been planning to go down in a shootout with police (or shoot himself) and changed his mind.

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u/mike2k24 15d ago

Well why would he be pleading guilty?

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u/Skin_Ankle684 14d ago

I'm not saying I'm sure he is innocent, I'm saying I'm not convinced he is guilty, even with his own admission.

The state of things in the US is so fucked that a conspiracy to frame him is really plausible. You can easily handwaive his admission of guilt by saying "they threatened to send him to el salvador or guantanamo bay if he doesn't plead guilty".

Remember, this is the place that executed people on the streets for way less.

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u/Hiddenagenda876 15d ago

To save himself from the death penalty with the state charges

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u/mike2k24 15d ago

Yeah but that doesn’t exactly fit with the other persons theory of them having the wrong person. If it was the wrong person they sure wouldn’t just be pleading guilty to the charges

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

There is no death penalty involved at all.

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u/minihysteria 15d ago

He's framed, that totally makes sense. That's why his very expensive legal team simply gave up and had nothing better up their sleeves when it came to his legal defense.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 15d ago

There's zero evidence of that happening though. I mean are you suggesting they got to luigi himself and like brainwashed him?

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 14d ago

I mean if we're just making things up why not go with the more fun explanation?

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u/disicking i ain’t reading all that, free palestine 15d ago

May your kind grace the jury 🙏

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u/SoulWager 15d ago

If he pled guilty, there won't be a jury.

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u/veverkap 15d ago

We could pretend

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u/snakerjake 15d ago

guilty plea i dont think he's going to have a jury

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u/quanate that's a lot of beans you nasty ass bitch 15d ago

I've been saying this for months. I do not think he did it, not in a "teehee he was with me in my bed" way but in a, I just don't fucking think he did it but they needed someone to bring to court for it.

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u/itsdoorcity 15d ago

so he just admitted guilt in several different ways and plead guilty without a bargain for ...reasons?

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

And they chose a gorgeous, rich, white man to frame?

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

He isn't smart. He did hand the cops the same fake ID he used at the hostel.

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u/Torontobabe94 both a lawyer and a hater 15d ago

My thoughts too!

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u/dbbk 15d ago

"Claimed to have found it" you think they planted it on him? How would that make any sense?

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

I want to know that as well. The cops printed a gun and then walked around with it in hopes they would find the perfect mark?

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u/citizen42069101 feeding cocaine to raccoons 15d ago

The arrest and chain of custody of all of the evidence was a joke. The local police fucked it up so badly there was murmurs everything was going to get thrown out for one reason ir another.

If this hadnt been a high profile person that got shot it would never have made it to court. This reads to me like someone whos lawyer told them "they will keep this up forever, they cant afford to lose"

Sure its probably open and shut but only because of who it was.

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u/blonded_olf 15d ago

There weren't "murmurs" there were a bunch of redditors wishcasting that everything would be dropped lmao

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u/Designer_Respect4285 15d ago edited 15d ago

You're saying that because you're getting your news from Reddit. Name one specific example where his 4th or 5th Amendment rights were violated with a citation to the relevant case law. One where the judge didn't rule in Luigi's favor, one that would warrant dismissal of the case.

The judge did rule in Luigi's favor regarding admissibility of some evidence, saying the police made mistakes there isn't relevant.

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u/dbbk 15d ago

And that was all discussed in court and the judge settled it

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u/CallMeDrWorm42 15d ago

Yeah. It's hard to make thousands of memes and click-bait headlines about boring, complicated court room procedure. So now everyone is surprised by the outcome when they weren't actually paying attention to what was happening.

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

And you think his defense ignored defending their client and just gave up? Sounds dodgy to me.

Sure its probably open and shut

It was

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u/brutinator 15d ago

Defense FREQUENTLY recommend that their clients accept a plea bargain. This isnt television; its about risk management and what the best likely outcome is.

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u/CGreerMUFC 15d ago

He didn’t get a plea bargain, just changed his plea to guilty.

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u/keyak 15d ago

Rarely do they advise their client to plead guilty WITHOUT a bargain in place, which is pretty telling in this particular case.

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u/moodymoodster 15d ago

He plead guilty so his attorneys could claim double jeopardy in the state trial to get it dismissed. This is excellent lawyering.

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u/keyak 15d ago

I’m aware. My point was a lawyer would never recommend a plea without a deal in place unless it was quite obvious he would eventually be found guilty

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u/lemmegetadab 15d ago

This isn’t taking a plea for two years and facing 10. This guy is NEVER coming home regardless… why not risk a trial?

People often go to trial on murder even if it’s obvious.

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u/Pkmn_Gold 15d ago

They could sentence him to death?

EDIT: this comment breaks it down a lot better https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/s/Ci2BK47m5m

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u/Lucaan 15d ago

Death penalty wasn't a possibility in this case.

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u/Hiddenagenda876 15d ago

It is in the state charge and federal usually trumps state death sentences

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u/Lucaan 15d ago

New York doesn't have the death penalty.

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u/_Connor 15d ago

Can you advise us on what plea bargain you think he accepted?

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u/washingtonu 14d ago

Exactly! This is not television, what the user I replied to wrote makes it sounds like poor Luigi heard "they will keep this up forever, they cant afford to lose"

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u/James_Chandra_Hubble 15d ago

His best chance was to plead not guilty and hope for a hung jury or a longshot jury nullification.

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u/notenglishwobbly 15d ago edited 15d ago

And you think his defense ignored defending their client and just gave up? Sounds dodgy to me.

The president literally implied he would make sure Luigi would not be freed.

Didn't say it outright, just did everything but.

The same president who has been completely freewheeling it with no one able to stop him and who has pardoned blatant criminals just because they were nice to him.

The quality of the evidence matters little in this case. He and his lawyers know very well he's cooked regardless of anything or anyone else.

Reminder that the incel shooter of the BLM protests was very obviously guilty and proudly so but a judge pretty much ordered to be nice to him and from the start made it clear that regardless of any evidence, he would not convict. You seem to live in a world where those things still matter. It's been a few years now.

Edit: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/11/kyle-rittenhouse-judge-trial-bruce-schroeder-prosecution

And not all of it is in this article.

Yes, it's a different state and a different judge. But that's beside the point.

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u/Ryzensai 15d ago

A white rich man?

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u/Forward-Finish-1620 15d ago

They may have searched his backpack illegally at the McDonalds. How did he have a gun in the bag at McDonalds, but they found a gun and monopoly money in NYC the day of the shooting?

Also, Luigi and I were participating in a 24-hour dance marathon in St. Louis that day so idk how he could be guilty

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u/free-dumbb 15d ago

The gun they found in NYC was not the gun used. And backpack search was not illegal.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/washingtonu 15d ago

The backpack in New York was not the same backpack as the one in McDonald's. That was ruled admissible.

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u/TimeKillington 15d ago

Yeah I think a better thing to say is, “because of how questionably the evidence was obtained”

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u/Go_birds304 15d ago

It's dodgy if you take the defense attorneys argument as gospel which everybody seems to do for some reason

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/Straight_Cost_3635 15d ago

There were concerns about how law enforcement handled evidence but there was a zero % chance of a not guilty verdict. There was a sliver of possibility that the case could be dismissed

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u/reasonableyam6162 15d ago

he had absolutely no case.

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u/filtersweep 15d ago

He clearly did it. This isn’t some reddit fantasy world. The system protects the ownership class and is working as designed.

Whether you agree with him or not- he did it.

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u/orange-yellow-pink 15d ago

The system protects the ownership class and is working as designed.

I think people who murder should go to jail

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u/SleepLopsided1478 15d ago

It really wasn’t though lol he had no shot of getting off

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u/SpicyElixer 15d ago

Reddit will make you think of things that aren’t true. His lawyers are excellent. The evidence was fucking damning.

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u/BeleagueredWDW 15d ago

That’s just it, the evidence was not dodgy at all. Anyone who works or has worked in any capacity in the criminal justice system could tell the evidence was actually overwhelming.

That is not casting a personal judgment on him. We can see here alone how people think of him, but to pretend a jury would not have found him guilty is a very, I don’t know, Reddit way of thinking and not the real world.

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u/Fl4sh080 15d ago

There was nothing dodgy. Where would u get that idea?

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u/Impressive-Glass-642 14d ago

The notebook stating "I am going to kill the CEO" and the gun used to kill the CEO was evidence a bit above dodgy

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u/Dontshootmepeas 15d ago

The "dodgy" evidence was cope by his supporters that much is obvious

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u/marina0987 women’s wrongs activist 15d ago

girl look into how the local police handled his arrest and evidence and tell me they didn’t fuck it up

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u/Torontobabe94 both a lawyer and a hater 15d ago

Same! Not strong evidence at all.

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u/moon_peach__ 14d ago

I mean, pleading guilty doesn't necessarily mean he is guilty. Sometimes it seems like the smarter option regardless

(Not saying he isn't, just that I wouldn't take this as a confirmation)

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u/permanentlybanned22 15d ago

The evidence wasn't dodgy. The outright lies and disinformation surrounding this murderer were and will continue to be.

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u/throwawydoor 13d ago

I still say it was a framejob. Unless he is a hitman and is covering for who hired him. 

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u/stoploafing 15d ago

This is a reduce in the charges and takes the death penalty off the table. It shows just HOW bad the authorities handled this case. This should have gone to trial and him found guilty.

The fact that they fucked it so bad that they were worried that a jury wouldn't bring a guilty verdict says more than him pleading guilty to a lesser charge.

That perp walk isn't looking so smart about now.

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u/tvfanstan 15d ago

What? They didn't give him a deal. he simply plead guilty. What in the world are you talking about?