New York — Luigi Mangione is scheduled to return to court on Tuesday Second day of the hearing In his attempt to prevent New York prosecutors from using evidence they say links him to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year.
A pretrial hearing in the Mangione murder case began Monday with prosecutors playing surveillance videos of the Dec. 4, 2024, killing and security footage of it. Arrested five days later At a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania.
Mangione, 27, held a pen in his right hand, occasionally pumping his fist, as prosecutors played audio of a 911 call from a McDonald’s manager relaying customers’ concerns that Mangione resembled the suspect in Thompson’s death.
Mangione’s lawyers are asking Judge Gregory Caro to bar prosecutors from showing or telling jurors the items seized from his backpack during his arrest, including 9mm pistol Which prosecutors say match those used in the killing and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intention to “bother” a health insurance executive.
The defense contends that the elements should be excluded because the police did not have a warrant to search his backpack. They also want to suppress some of the statements Mangione made to law enforcement officers, such as giving a false name, because officers began asking questions before telling him he had the right to remain silent.
Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life imprisonment, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. No date has been set for either trial. The next hearing in the federal case is scheduled for January 9.
Mangione’s lawyers want to suppress evidence from both cases, but this week’s hearing concerns only the state’s case.
Five witnesses testified Monday, including a Pennsylvania prison officer who said Mangione told him that at the time of his arrest he was carrying a backpack containing foreign currency and a 3D-printed gun.
Another prison officer said his supervisor told him that Mangione was being held under constant surveillance because the facility “did not want an Epstein-style situation,” referring to Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 suicide in prison.
More law enforcement officers are expected to testify Tuesday.
Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson in the back as the CEO walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel to attend his company’s annual investor conference. Prosecutors say the words “delay,” “refusal” and “deposit” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurance companies avoid paying claims.
Mangione was arrested while eating breakfast at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan after the restaurant manager told a 911 dispatcher, “I have a customer here that some other customers have been suspicious of — and he appears to be the CEO shooter from New York.”
The manager told the dispatcher she searched online for photos of the suspect posted by police. But while Mangione was sitting in the restaurant, she said she could only see his eyebrows because he was wearing a beanie near his eyes and was wearing a medical face mask.
On Monday, a few dozen Mangione supporters watched the hearing from the back of the courtroom.
One wore a green T-shirt that said: “Without a search warrant, it’s not a search, it’s a violation.” Another woman was carrying a doll of the video game character Luigi and had a figurine of him clipped to her bag.
Court officials say the hearing could take more than a week.