Monday marked the second court appearance in New York for Luigi M. since his arrest at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania, five days after UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson was killed outside a hotel in Manhattan.
M. pleaded not guilty to New York state murder charges. The 26-year-old faces an 11-count indictment, which includes three murder charges, one of them being murder as an act of terrorism.
If convicted, M. faces a maximum sentence of life in person without the possibility of parole.
Federal and state charges filed against M
He also faces a four-count federal criminal complaint charging him with stalking and killing Thompson.
He has not yet been asked to enter a plea to those charges.
Outside the courthouse, a small group of protesters had gathered to show their support for M. and anger at health care companies, with one person holding a sign saying “Deny, Defend, Depose,” the words police say were found on shell casings at the crime scene. Te terms echo tactics some accuse insurers of using to avoid paying out claims.
While public officials condemned Thmopson’s killing, M. has become somewhat of a folk hero to some Americans who decry the steep costs of health care and the power held by insurance companies to deny paying for some medical treatments.
ftm/sms (Reuters, AP)
