Luigi Mangione PA Court Hearing: New Developments

ALTOONA, PA — The Pennsylvania criminal case against Luigi Mangione, who is accused of homicide in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year, has been delayed indefinitely.

Blair County Judge Jackie Bernard on Monday canceled Mangione's Nov. 7 scheduled court appearance after his attorney, Tom Dickey, declined that the suspect be brought back to Blair County for his court appearances there. Mangione had been offered the option to have his hearings online.

The issue is this:

Mangione is currently facing firearm, tampering, forgery and false identification charges related to his arrest in Blair County in December. But he is facing more serious homicide charges in New York City and authorities there will not release him to personally face the Pennsylvania charges.

According to Bernard's order, courts will be required to update the the status of the case every 60 days, WTAJ-TV in Johnstown reported. Mangione potentially could delay the Pennsylvania case until the charges against him in New York are resolved.

Mangione was arrested at an Altoona McDonald's and has been in custody since the ambush and assassination of Thompson in December.

A masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where UnitedHealthcare was holding an investors conference.

Surveillance videos show the killer shot Thompson at around 6:45 a.m. before fleeing on foot and then on a bike into Central Park. Authorities believe he left New York City on an interstate bus.

Five days after the killing, Mangione got off of a Greyhound bus traveling through Altoona and entered a McDonald's at around 9:15 a.m., where he was recognized from the images of the suspect circulated by authorities.

Police responding to the McDonald's discovered Mangione had fake IDs - including one the gunman used to check into a New York hostel before the shooting. He also was found to have a handwritten document criticizing health care companies.