Luigi Mangione, the suspicious in the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, has added a prominent defense attorney to his legal team as Manhattan prosecutors work to bring him back from Pennsylvania to face a murder charge.
Mangione will be represented by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who was a senior deputy in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for years before entering private practice. Friedman Agnifilo’s law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, confirmed in a statement late Friday that she had been hired to represent Mangione. The firm said it would not comment on the case at this time.
According to her firm’s website, “A public servant for nearly three decades, Karen Friedman Agnifilo left government as a chief assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, a role she held since from 2014 to 2021″.
Richard Drew / AP
Mangione was arrested Monday after a customer-to-one McDonald’s in AltoonaPennsylvania, saw him eating breakfast and noticed a resemblance to the person police were looking for in the Dec. 4 murder of Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
says the police glutton was found with a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson was arriving for his company’s annual investor conference.
The New York Police Department told CBS News there is no indication Mangione was one UnitedHealthcare customer
Mangione, 26, remained in jail without bond Saturday in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with weapons offenses and forgery. Altoona is about 230 miles west of New York City.
Mangione’s attorney there, Thomas Dickey, has cautioned against prejudging the case and said his client would contest his extradition to New York.
But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday that there were indications Mangione might give up that fight.
“We will continue to move forward on parallel paths, and we will be ready whether he waives extradition or contests extradition,” Bragg said at an unrelated news conference in Times Square.
Hours after Mangione’s arrest Monday, Bragg’s office filed charges charging him with five counts, including first degree murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has said she is willing to ask her Pennsylvania counterpart, Governor Josh Shapiroto step in and issue a governor’s order requiring Mangione’s extradition if he does not agree to be voluntarily transferred.
Mangione’s new attorney has made frequent television appearances, including as a CNN legal analyst, co-hosts a weekly podcast and is the legal advisor to “Law & Order.”
Her husband and law partner Mark Agnifilo is representing Sean “Diddy” Combs in the hip-hop mogul’s Manhattan federal sex-trafficking case.