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A lawyer representing Luigi Mangione said law enforcement was politicizing her client's arrest and prosecution, pointing to Mayor Eric Adams of New York City's attendance at Mangione's first perp walk in the state.
"Frankly, your honor, the mayor should know more than anyone of the presumption of innocence," the attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said at a Monday-morning hearing.
Mangione pleaded not guilty at the proceeding, which took place in the courtroom of Justice Gregory Carro of the New York Supreme Court, a trial judge in Manhattan's state-level criminal court.
He was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, following a five-day hunt for the person who killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk. At Monday's hearing, the Ivy League graduate looked polished, wearing a maroon sweater over a white collared shirt. His wrists were bound with heavy shackles as he walked into the courtroom.
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Adams, alongside Commissioner Jessica Tisch of the New York Police Department, stood for dramatic photos at the Manhattan helipad where Mangione was flown in on Thursday.
A large group of police officers walked Mangione from the helicopter, making for images that went viral on social media.
"I wanted to look him in the eye to say that, 'You carried out this terrorist act in my city, the city that the people of New York love,' and I wanted to be there to show the symbolism of that," Adams later said.
A grand jury has indicted Adams on federal corruption charges alleging he took bribes from the Turkish government. He's pleaded not guilty.
"Frankly, I submit that he was trying to detract from those issues by making a spectacle of Mr. Mangione," Friedman Agnifilo said at Monday's hearing, according to the Courthouse News reporter Erik Uebelacker.
Mangione previously appeared in Manhattan federal court Thursday afternoon on charges brought by the US Justice Department. He has been in federal custody in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center.
The Manhattan district attorney's office accused Mangione of first-degree murder "in furtherance of terrorism."
Federal prosecutors brought additional murder charges that, if Mangione is convicted, are death-penalty-eligible.
The district attorney's case will go to trial first, the Justice Department announced. A trial date has not yet been set.
