The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate and high school valedictorian accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a street at midtown Manhattan, Luigi Mangione, appeared at Manhattan criminal court on Friday. The presiding judge, Gregory Carro, set a date in June for the next status conference and briefly discussed the discrepancy regarding the facility, where Mr. Mangione is being held. 

“Has there even been an indictment yet?” The state judge asked, referring to the parallel federal case against Mr. Mangione, who is being held at the notorious Metropolitan Correctional Center, the federal government’s jail at Brooklyn. “So they’re holding on him on the complaint?” He asked.

Assistant District Attorney Zachary Kaplan, who was prosecuting the case on behalf of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, told the judge that the defendant was being held at the federal facility at his own consent. 

“When they’re hanging the death penalty over your head you have no choice but to consent,” the lead defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, told the judge. 

Mr. Mangione, who wore a bulletproof vest, is facing charges both in state and in federal court. Prosecutors agreed that the state case would go to trial first. The alleged killer has not yet been indicted by a federal grand jury. The federal criminal complaint, however, was made public in December, and accuses Mr. Mangione of murder through use of a firearm, a charge that is death penalty eligible. Prosecutors have not said if they will seek the death penalty, and would have to get an approval from the US Attorney General first. 

Mr. Mangione wore a dark green sweater and a bullet proof vest and entered the courtroom at 2:25pm. Ms. Agnifilo asked the judge to unshackle her client. The judge declined, and said, “unless he has to sign something.”  

It was the first time he was back in court for Mr. Mangione since his arraignment on December 23, and the hearing was moved into the same courtroom where the highly publicized hush-money trial against President Trump took place last year. Ms. Agnifilo told another attorney from her firm, Jacob Kaplan, that “it’s not that cold.” Mr. Trump had often referred to the room as the icebox. But perhaps, Ms. Agnifilo was not cold because she had just come from the hallway, which was stuffy, hot, and packed with Mr. Mangione’s fervent fans, who cheered as the defense team entered, like groupies at a rock show. 

Indeed, the 15th floor at the Manhattan criminal courthouse was packed with supporters. Over one hundred people crowded into the hallway. Among them was Chelsea Manning, the former Army private who was convicted of violating the Espionage Act after disclosing hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks. Her sentence was later commuted by President Obama.      

Ms. Agnifio was accompanied by her husband, the defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, who is currently representing Sean “Diddy” Combs and previously represented NXIVM cult leader, Keith Raniere. 

Mr. Mangione pleaded not guilty to the 11-count indictment handed up against him by Mr. Bragg last December. Among the charges against him are murder in the first degree — the most serious homicide offense in New York State, punishable by 20 years to life behind bars without the possibility of parole. Mr. Mangione is accused of having “killed in furtherance as an act of terrorism,” the district attorney’s office wrote, which is legally defined as an intent to intimidate or coerce the civilian population or a government unit.

Mr. Mangione’s case shocked the nation. The tech enthusiast, who comes from a wealthy real estate family at Towson, Maryland, outside Baltimore, was his high school’s valedictorian before earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. On the morning of December 4, at approximately 6:45 am, he allegedly shot and killed Thompson, a husband and father of two, on a sidewalk at Midtown Manhattan, in front of the New York Hilton, as the executive was on his way to an investor conference.  

After a five-day-long manhunt, during which grainy surveillance pictures of the alleged assassin were circulated on national media and flooded the internet, Mr. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s at Altoona, Pennsylvania, where an employee called the police, after a customer had recognized the young man, who had removed his face mask to eat. 

Mr. Mangione waived his right to fight extradition to New York and was transported to Manhattan via plane and helicopter, dramatically brought to the courthouse by a phalanx of law enforcement officers, and charged with murder in two separate courts, in state court and in federal court. The state case will go to trial first. 

Earlier this month, Mr. Mangione’s defense team hired Avraham Moskowitz, an attorney who specializes in death penalty cases. A spokeswoman for Ms. Agnifilo’s firm said in a statement that “The charges could not be more serious and our client needs every resource at his disposal to fight these unprecedented charges in three jurisdictions.” 

The high-profile case has triggered a controversial outpouring of public support for the alleged killer because of the unpopularity of health insurers such as United Healthcare. The defense team has set up a website that tracks his cases, provides a platform where Mr. Mangione can make statements, and links to an online defense fund on a Christian crowdfunding site to cover his legal fees.     

So far $515,372 have been raised. Last week, an anonymous donor added $11,000, citing Mr. Trump’s executive order on the death penalty.  

In a statement, the anonymous donor wrote, “The DP (death penalty) should never be politicized, and I am concerned that, especially given the DP EO, it may continue to be for this case. I am also concerned about the severe infringement on the defendant’s right to a fair trial and due process, particularly since his juries are effectively pre-tainted. Note: Rideau v. LA. I saw today’s news saying he was a ‘killer’ without due process & added $1k.” 

The donor is referring to Wilbert Rideau’s case from 1961. Rideau was accused of robbing a bank in Louisiana, of kidnapping three employees and murdering one. The day after his arrest, Rideau participated in a filmed interview in jail where he confessed to the crimes under the sheriff’s questioning. This film was broadcast on local television. Rideau’s attorney tried in vain to move the trial to another venue, arguing that the publicity had tainted the jury pool. Rideau was convicted and members of the jury said they had seen the broadcast. Originally sentenced to death, that sentence was commuted to life in prison and he was eventually released from prison after 44 years behind bars.

Mr. Mangione’s defense attorney raised similar issues as Rideau’s during the last hearing in December, when she told the judge, she was “very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial.” She said her client was being treated “like a spectacle,” when he was given “the biggest perp walk” she had “ever seen,” escorted by “assault rifles” that she said she “didn’t know existed.”

When Mr. Magione was transported to Manhattan from Pennsylvania, he was met by Mayor Adams, dozens of law enforcement agents, and a trove of photographers. Ms. Agniflio described the perp walk as “perfectly choreographed, utterly political” and  “absolutely unnecessary.” 

She expressed concern that the mayor did not use the word “alleged” when he spoke about her client, and that his accusations could prejudice potential jurors. She cited one statement Mr. Adams gave to reporters verbatim: “I’m not going to just allow him (Mr. Mangione) to come into our city.” Mr. Adams told reporters. “I wanted to look him in the eye and state that, ‘You carried out this terrorist act in my city, the city that the people of New York love.’ And I wanted to be there to show the symbolism of that.”

Besides the indictments in New York, Mr. Mangione is also charged in Pennsylvania for allegedly carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities, and possessing instruments of a crime, according to a criminal complaint. He is due in court in Pennsylvania on Monday, February 24, a hearing that’s expected to be virtual due to his confinement in New York.