NEW YORK — The state murder trial of Luigi Mangione, who admitted to gunning down a US health insurance executive, will be postponed following his guilty plea in a federal case, according to a judge’s order filed Monday.

His trial on charges of murdering UnitedHealthCare chief executive Brian Thompson was due to get underway next month but that prospect was upended when he pleaded guilty in federal court Friday and his lawyers moved to have the state charges dismissed.

There will be a hearing in the state case at the beginning of December.

In dramatic courtroom scenes, Mangione admitted Friday to killing the health insurance boss in a Manhattan street as he pleaded guilty to stalking charges before a federal judge.

“On the morning of December 4, I shot Mr Thompson in Manhattan and he died,” Mangione told a federal judge as he pleaded guilty to stalking his victim. He will be sentenced on December 18 and prosecutors said they would seek a life term.

‘No celebrity in assassination’

He had been facing the stalking charges in the federal system, alongside murder charges in the New York state system but Mangione’s lawyers called Friday for the state charges to be dropped to prevent him being prosecuted twice for the same conduct.