(NewsNation) — Defense attorneys for Luigi Mangione, accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year, say prosecutors have not provided evidence to prove his mother told authorities the alleged murder is something “she could see him doing.”
Mangione’s lawyers pushed back against the government in court filings this week, where they requested a judge to invalidate a Certificate of Compliance, which confirms prosecutors turned over all known discoverable material to the defense.
Defense lawyers said New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny referenced a tip during a December 2024 news conference that he allegedly received from a police sergeant in San Francisco about speaking with Mangione’s mother.
“They had a conversation where she didn’t indicate that it was her son in the photograph, but she said it might be something that she could see him doing,” Kenny told reporters, the filings stated.
But Mangione’s defense attorneys said prosecutors turned over no evidence to prove this statement was ever made.
“To date, there has been no documentation provided in discovery that confirms the Chief of Detectives’ statement as to Mrs. Mangione’s alleged statement. In fact, all the discovery provided so far indicates that she did not make such a statement,” Mangione’s attorneys wrote in the filing.
They contend that Mangione’s mother either never made the statement or, if she did, prosecutors have failed to provide it to defense attorneys.
“If it is true that Mrs. Mangione never made this statement, then it is shocking and unconscionable that the District Attorney’s Office and the NYPD have never corrected this highly prejudicial false statement.”
The lawyers also said this statement was widely quoted and disseminated in the media and in an upcoming book, which has damaged the case and prejudiced Mangione’s ability to receive a fair trial.
Mangione is charged in New York with second-degree murder, multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
The maximum sentence for the state charges would be life without parole.
He is also facing a federal death penalty case and has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal jail in Brooklyn, since his December 2024 arrest. He has pleaded not guilty.