Republican Nino Mangione won Baltimore County Council’s District 5 seat by four points over Democrat Shawn McIntosh. The 39-year-old conservative campaigned with a police endorsement and a promise of maximum penalties for violent offenders.
His victory also brought renewed attention to his first cousin, Luigi Mangione, who admitted killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Nino’s campaign, however, centered on his own record and crime platform.
“Violent offenders should be made to serve maximum penalties, showing repeat offenders that their actions will no longer be tolerated,” his campaign website reads.
From state delegate to county council
Nino’s tenure in the Maryland House of Delegates ran from 2019-2026. Away from politics, he presents “The Right Side,” a conservative talk-radio program on Baltimore station WCBM.
The Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police endorsed his council campaign. His public crime message explicitly addressed repeat offenders and the sentences they should serve.
The family connection became part of the public backdrop after Luigi’s arrest in 2024. Nino expressed sympathy for Thompson’s relatives at the time.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” he wrote.
The federal plea
Luigi pleaded guilty on 14 August to federal stalking charges and admitted fatally shooting Thompson outside Manhattan’s Midtown Hilton on 4 December 2024. The state murder and weapons trial had been scheduled for 8 September before the plea changed its course.
In a Manhattan federal court, Luigi acknowledged the fear his actions would cause.
“I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death or serious bodily injury,” he said.
He told the court that frustration with health insurance companies motivated him. He was never a UnitedHealthcare policyholder, according to investigators.
A federal judge is due to sentence Luigi on Dec. 18, when he faces a potential life sentence.
A double-jeopardy dispute
Luigi’s lawyers want the separate New York state murder and weapons case dismissed. They argue that his federal stalking plea already covers the same misconduct and that New York’s double-jeopardy protections bar another prosecution.
“The core misconduct of the federal and state prosecutions is the same: the intent to kill and the killing of Brian Thompson,” the defense wrote.
The attorneys also contend that the weapons allegations concern one firearm at the same place and time. “There is and was no other gun,” their letter to Justice Gregory Carro said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office opposes dismissal. Prosecutors say federal stalking and state murder address different misconduct, with the state indictment presenting a conventional murder case.
They also point to an exception in New York’s double-jeopardy provisions. Lead prosecutor Joel Seidemann argued that earlier federal litigation demonstrated substantial differences between the charges.
The defense rejects that position. “There is no basis to find such a difference, much less a sufficiently great difference as to fit within the narrow statutory exception,” the lawyers wrote.
The state trial was postponed indefinitely while Carro considers the issue. Oral arguments are scheduled for December, with a dismissal decision expected Dec. 10.
If the state case proceeds, Luigi faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. Federal authorities are holding him in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.
Sources
- Luigi Mangione’s tough-on-crime cousin wins local Baltimore election
- Luigi Mangione
- Judge to hear renewed bid to dismiss Mangione case
- Luigi Mangione’s lawyers file to dismiss state charges, citing double jeopardy law
- ‘There is and was no other gun’: Mangione team argues double jeopardy bars state murder trial
- Luigi Mangione’s cousin Nino wins Baltimore county election
Photo: Maryland GovPics (CC BY 2.0)
