Dec. 13 (UPI) — A New York City grand jury has begun hearing evidence against UnitedHealthcare CEO suspected murderer Luigi Mangione, as the company said he was not insured by them.
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office prosecutors started presenting evidence in the case Thursday, seeking an indictment against Mangione in the murder of Brian Thompson, CBS News and ABC News reported.
Mangione is fighting extradition from Pennsylvania to New York even as the grand jury hears evidence against him.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during an interview with CBS News that she had spoken to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as she worked to secure Mangione’s extradition.
“I want to get him back here in the State of New York and run him through our criminal justice system,” she said. “Because that horrific attack occurred on our streets, and the people of our city deserve to have that sense of calm that this perpetrator has been caught and he will never see the light of day again, if there is justice.”
Mangione is in a maximum security prison cell in Pennsylvania.
Gov. Hochul said an extradition hearing is set for Dec. 23.
According to CBS News, citing NYPD sources, Mangione’s charge in New York will be changed from second-degree to premeditated first-degree murder once he is extradited from Pennsylvania.
As authorities seek to determine a motive for the shooting, UnitedHealthcare denied that Mangione was a client.
“Brian Thompson’s killer was not a member of UnitedHealthcare,” a company spokesperson told ABC News.
UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty mourned Thompson in a New York Times guest essay Friday, publicly addressing the killing for the first time.
He said it’s a grief and sadness the company will “carry for the rest of our lives.”
“We greatly appreciate the enormous outpouring of support for Brian, who ran our health insurance business, UnitedHealthcare, as well as for our wider company, which I lead. Yet we also are struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats,” Witty wrote.
He acknowledged that the U.S. health system doesn’t work as well as it should.
He said health care is intensely personal and complicated and UHC shares some of the responsibility for that.
“Together with employers, governments and others who pay for care, we need to improve how we explain what insurance covers and how decisions are made,” Witty said. “Behind each decision lies a comprehensive and continually updated body of clinical evidence focused on achieving the best health outcomes and ensuring patient safety.”
