Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering the CEO of insurance company UnitedHealthcare, will appear in court on Friday for the first time since December.
Mangione has a hearing scheduled in state court in Manhattan.
It is the first court appearance for the 26-year-old since his arraignment on murder and terror charges.
Both prosecutors and Mangione’s defense lawyers are expected to provide updates on the status of the case.
Judge Gregory Carro may set deadlines for pretrial paperwork to be submitted. A trial date could even be set.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism, after allegedly shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4.
Thompson was ambushed and shot on a sidewalk as he walked to a conference.
Mangione then allegedly led authorities on a five-day manhunt before being arrested in Pennsylvania.
Mangione also faces federal charges that could carry the possibility of the death penalty. He is being held in a Brooklyn federal jail alongside several other high-profile defendants, including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried.
Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state charges expected to go to trial first. The maximum sentence for the state charges is life in prison without parole. A February 24 hearing in Pennsylvania on charges of possessing an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police was canceled.
In a statement posted on a website for his legal defense, Mangione said: “I am overwhelmed by – and grateful for – everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support. Powerfully, this support has transcended political, racial, and even class divisions."
Mangione was arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on December 9. Police said he was carrying a gun that matched the one used in the shooting and a fake ID. He also was carrying a notebook expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and especially wealthy executives, authorities said.
Defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo argued at his December 23 arraignment that “warring jurisdictions” had turned Mangione into a “human ping-pong ball.”
She accused New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other government officials of tainting the jury pool by bringing Mangione back to Manhattan in a choreographed spectacle involving heavily armed officers escorting him up a pier from a heliport.
Friedman Agnifilo singled out Adams’ comment on a local TV station that he wanted to be there to look “him in the eye and say, ‘you carried out this terroristic act in my city.’”
