Luigi Mangione’s cousin will proceed his skilled soccer profession simply miles from the jail the place the alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is being held.
Peter Mangione, a 24-year-old midfielder from Hunt Valley, Md., has signed a contract with Brooklyn FC of for its USL Championship roster, the workforce introduced Wednesday.
A Penn State product, Mangione loved a standout run with the Nittany Lions, notching 31 profession objectives and twice incomes Huge Ten Offensive Participant of the 12 months honors (2021, ’23).
Former Penn State soccer coach Jeff Prepare dinner touted Mangione, who was named vice captain of the workforce in 2021, as having “made vital contributions to our Penn State males’s soccer program each on and off the sector.”
He spent the earlier two seasons with FC Cincinnati 2 of MLS Subsequent, an novice league operated by Main League Soccer.
Final season, Mangione logged two objectives and 5 assists over 28 appearances.
“He brings a balanced midfield profile to Brooklyn, with the engine to cowl floor and the tip product to influence matches within the last third,” his new workforce mentioned in its launch.
Brooklyn FC will open its inaugural season competing for the USL Championship on March 8, going through Indy Eleven at Maimonides Park in Coney Island — roughly 6 miles from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Heart, the place Peter’s cousin Luigi is presently housed.
Luigi Mangione, 27, is accused of assassinating Thompson outdoors the medical insurance firm’s investor convention in Midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024.
After a five-day manhunt, he was apprehended inside an Altoona, Pa., McDonald’s.
Decide Margaret Garnett this week backtracked on a previous ruling, electing to carry an evidentiary listening to to decide if Mangione’s backpack was lawfully seized and searched in the course of the arrest.
U.S. Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi has pushed for the loss of life penalty within the Mangione case, which might mark the primary Manhattan federal execution in additional than 70 years.
Garnett set a tentative date of Sept. 8 to start jury choice, as Mangione’s legal professionals combat to keep away from the loss of life penalty.
Garnett mentioned final week that if loss of life penalty prices are dropped, the trial might start as early as Oct. 12.
If the federal prices proceed, Mangione’s trial might start in January 2027, she added.
Mangione’s authorized counsel has fought in opposition to capital punishment, arguing that the case has been was a “Marvel-esque” manufacturing, which is able to negatively sway potential jurors.
“In a present of drive befitting a captured cartel chief or comedian e book villain, Mr. Mangione, on the time a 26-year-old who had by no means been in bother with the regulation, was ‘perp walked’ earlier than scores of tv cameras and press reporters, surrounded by armed regulation enforcement officers in tactical SWAT gear and raid jackets,” his legal professionals mentioned in a 114-page Manhattan Federal Courtroom submitting in September.
Whereas a decide dropped terrorism prices in opposition to Mangione in September, he nonetheless faces a slew of prices in federal, New York and Pennsylvania courts, together with homicide, interstate stalking, unlawful gun possession and forgery tied to the slaying.
Mangione has pleaded not responsible to all prices in each federal and New York state court docket, and in addition entered not responsible pleas in Pennsylvania to the weapons and associated offenses.
