NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally gunning down health insurance executive Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street, pleaded not guilty on Monday (Dec 23) to New York state murder charges that brand him a terrorist.

Mangione, 26, was escorted into Judge Gregory Carro's 13th-floor courtroom in the New York state criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan with a court officer on each arm, and a procession of a half dozen officers following him. He was in handcuffs and shackles, and wore a burgundy sweater over a white-collared shirt.

Mangione leaned into a microphone and said "not guilty" when Carro asked how he pleaded to the 11-count indictment charging him with murder as an act of terrorism and weapons offences.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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