Ex-Manhattan prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo to represent suspect in killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO

Alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione has retained Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a high-ranking veteran of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, as his defense attorney.

Mangione, who is in a Pennsylvania jail awaiting extradition to New York, has been charged with second-degree murder and gun charges in the fatal shooting of health insurance executive Brian Thompson on Dec. 4.

Friedman Agnifilo, who served as the second in command under former district attorney Cyrus Vance for nearly 10 years, has three decades of experience in the legal profession and appeared on TV as a legal analyst for CNN.

Her firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, confirmed that she would be representing Mangione but declined to comment further. The former top prosecutor did speak about the case on CNN before she was retained.

"It looks like to me there might be a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' defense because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did," Friedman Agnifilo said.

Her husband, Marc Agnifilo, represents Sean “Diddy” Combs in the Manhattan federal case against the rap mogul for sex trafficking and racketeering.

Authorities believe it was Mangione who was recorded on surveillance video walking up to Thompson outside the New York Hilton hotel on 54th Street and Seventh Avenue, pulling out a handgun with a silencer attached and shooting the executive three times.

NYPD detectives said Mangione fled through Central Park on a Citibike after checking out of an Upper West Side hostel. He left the city for Pennsylvania where he was arrested in an Altoona McDonald’s while eating a hash brown and typing on his laptop, authorities said.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland family, has expressed frustration at the health insurance industry online and in written statements.

In his bag, police found a 3D-printed handgun and silencer along with a manifesto in which he appeared to take credit for the murder, according to his criminal complaint.

Mangione, who was charged for the illegal handgun in Pennsylvania, could be extradited to New York next week for his arraignment on the murder and weapons charges.