Within four days of his arrest in connection with the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, suspect Luigi Mangione has secured representation from two lawyers in two states and tens of thousands of dollars for a legal defense fund.
Mangione, who grew up in Maryland, was arrested Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a witness spotted him in a McDonald’s there.
At his arraignment the next day in Blair County, viewers got their first glimpse of Mangione since the arrest, as he walked into court while yelling at the media, “It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and the lived experience!” It’s not clear what he was referring to.
Tuesday was also the first time the public learned of his Pennsylvania lawyer, Thomas Dickey, a small-town defense attorney who is taking on the biggest case of his career.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported late Friday evening that Mangione has also retained Karen Friedman Agnifilo to represent him in New York. Collins described her as a high-powered attorney who previously served as the chief assistant district attorney in Manhattan and has been in private practice since 2021.
Here’s what we know about both of Mangione’s attorneys and why he needs two lawyers in two states.
Mangione’s Pennsylvania attorney Thomas Dickey
Viewers were introduced to Dickey at a makeshift news conference Tuesday when he defended his client’s innocence.
“I haven’t seen any evidence that says that he’s the shooter,” Dickey said of Mangione.
As police continued gathering evidence they say connects Mangione to the crime, his lawyer doubled down.
New York Police Department officials said they matched Mangione’s fingerprints on items connected to the CEO killing and shell casings from the Manhattan scene that match a ghost gun he allegedly had in Pennsylvania at the time of his arrest. The three 9 mm shell casings had three words written on them: “delay,” “deny” and “depose.” Investigations are examining whether the words may be a reference to a 2010 book about insurance companies not paying claims.
Dickey told CNN’s Erin Burnett Wednesday night that he still needed to see NYPD’s forensic evidence and he questioned the reliability of fingerprints and ballistics, saying they’ve faced criticism in the past “relative to their credibility, their truthfulness, their accuracy.”
“We need to see how did they collect it. How much of it matches?” Dickey said.
He said his experts would need to look at it and “challenge its admissibility and challenge the accuracy of those results.”
The Baltimore Sun has reached out to interview Dickey.
Dickey’s Altoona office handles a range of legal cases, from criminal law to family law. He’s worked as an attorney for about 40 years, according to his law firm’s website. Dickey attended Altoona High School, St. Francis University for his undergraduate degree in history and political science, and he earned his law degree at Ohio Northern University. His bio also claims that he is “a regular guest commentator on local and national media, including CNN.”
He would not disclose to CNN this week who retained him, specifically when he was asked if the Mangione family had hired him. He did imply that he would reject being retained by crowdsourced defense funds.
Mangione’s New York attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo
In her bio on X, formerly Twitter, Friedman Agnifilo describes herself as an attorney, former prosecutor, media analyst, mom, and legal analyst on CNN.
Friedman Agnifilo earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a law degree at Georgetown University, according to her LinkedIn profile.
It was CNN that broke the news Friday night that the criminal defense lawyer in New York is representing Mangione.
Mangione is facing a second-degree murder charge in New York, and he might be headed to the state next week, according to some new information from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“Indications are that the defendant may waive. But that waiver is not complete until a court proceeding, which my understanding from court officials in Pennsylvania cannot happen until Tuesday,” he said Friday.
Earlier this week, before she was retained as Mangione’s attorney, Friedman Agnilfo was on CNN to analyze the case and said, “There might be a not-guilty-by-insanity defense that they’re thinking about because the evidence is so overwhelming that he did what he did.”
Have a news tip? Contact Candy Woodall at cwoodall@baltsun.com.