New York
—
Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of killing a health insurance company executive in a brazen assault that sparked a nationwide debate, appeared in court Monday for the beginning of a multi-day listening to as his attorneys seek to have his diary entries and different key evidence tossed from his state murder case.
He entered the courtroom by a aspect door Monday morning with his palms shackled, carrying a darkish grey swimsuit jacket and a white checkered button-down shirt. A court officer unshackled his palms as he reached the protection desk.
Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania following a days-long manhunt after United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, was fatally shot December 4, 2024, on a busy sidewalk in midtown Manhattan.
During the arrest, regulation enforcement recovered a number of items of evidence from Mangione’s backpack that authorities say tie him to the killing. Mangione’s legal professionals argue police illegally searched his bag with out a warrant, in order that evidence needs to be barred from the state’s case. Prosecutors denied the protection’s claims and agreed to a listening to on the matter.
Mangione’s protection is battling prosecutors in two circumstances: Lawyers in his federal death penalty case additionally are attempting to get a lot of the identical evidence tossed. That case returns to court on January 9.
The listening to over the disputed evidence in the state case is anticipated to final a number of days, with each events planning to name witnesses to testify, in accordance to court paperwork.
In Monday’s listening to, prosecutors confirmed the total surveillance video of Thompson being shot in entrance of a lodge, stumbling to the aspect earlier than falling to the bottom. They additionally performed surveillance video from contained in the McDonald’s as two officers first approached Mangione, with at the least six extra members of regulation enforcement later becoming a member of them in the restaurant.
As the movies performed, Mangione appeared to watch them from the protection desk, one finger resting on his chin.
The prosecution additionally performed a 911 name made by the supervisor of the McDonald’s.
“I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of and he looks like the CEO shooter from New York,” the supervisor is heard saying. “So they’re really upset, and they’ve come to me.”
The caller acknowledged the person was carrying a black jacket, medical masks and a tan beanie.
“The only thing you can see is his eyebrows,” she mentioned.
Mangione confirmed no seen indicators of resistance in the surveillance video, which didn’t embody audio. Next to him is a backpack the place police say they discovered writings they have described as a “manifesto” for the capturing.
At one level, protection lawyer Karen Friedman-Agnifilo requested an NYPD officer whether or not anybody acquired the $10,000 CrimeStoppers reward in the investigation, however Judge Gregory Carro sustained an objection from prosecutors.
In earlier court filings, Friedman-Agnifilo requested Carro to forestall the prosecution from exhibiting the contents of Mangione’s writings on the listening to, saying they might taint the jury pool. She objected to the prosecution’s use of the time period “manifesto,” calling it a “prejudicial, invented law-enforcement label.”
She additionally requested the decide to enable at the least one among Mangione’s palms to be unshackled in the course of the listening to so he can take notes.
In September, Carro dismissed the top two charges towards Mangione – murder in the primary diploma in furtherance of an act of terrorism and murder in the second diploma as against the law of terrorism – after he discovered the evidence had not established Mangione dedicated a terroristic act. Mangione nonetheless faces 9 costs in the state case, and the separate federal death penalty prosecution. He has pleaded not responsible to all costs.
An officer with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections mentioned Monday that he was assigned to monitor Mangione at SCI Huntingdon, a state correctional facility, and place him on “constant watch.”
“I was told that SCI Huntingdon did not want an Epstein-style situation,” Tomas Rivers testified.
Rivers mentioned the 2 spoke in regards to the variations in non-public and nationalized well being care and the way the case was being coated in the mainstream media and on social media.
The officer mentioned he informed Mangione the mainstream conventional media was centered on the crime; on social media, he mentioned, the dialogue was about potential wrongdoers in the well being care trade.
Mangione was “disappointed” that he was being in contrast to “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski in the media as a result of he had reviewed one among his books on-line, the corrections officer testified.
Mangione additionally advisable the e-book “The Doors of Perception” by Aldous Huxley, however Rivers mentioned he by no means appeared into it.
Another corrections officer testified Mangione informed him he had a backpack with international foreign money and a 3D-printed weapon in it. Mangione informed the corrections officer that he was accused of being a international agent due to the international foreign money, Matthew Henry testified.
On cross-examination, protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo appeared doubtful about Henry’s testimony, questioning why Mangione would allegedly inform him a few weapon unprompted.
During Mangione’s arrest final December, authorities seized several items from his backpack, together with a handgun, a loaded journal and a pocket book with handwritten entries – key items of evidence that prosecutors allege join Mangione to the killing.
The recovered gun strains up with ballistic evidence from the Manhattan crime scene, prosecutors mentioned in court paperwork. Authorities have referred to as the writings in the pocket book a “manifesto,” pointing to sections that element his frustration with the health care industry and his intent to perform an assault. Prosecutors mentioned the entries “establish his responsibility for this vicious crime.”
In a court submitting, Friedman-Agnifilo argued the writings and all of the objects recovered from the backpack shouldn’t be admissible since police illegally searched the bag with out a warrant, and there was no speedy risk to justify a warrantless search.
“Police conducted this warrantless search even though there were no exigent circumstances as Mr. Mangione was already in handcuffs, the backpack was on a table over six feet away and Mr. Mangione was separated from this table by a wall of armed officers,” she wrote.
Police didn’t seek a search warrant for the bag till later that night, about seven hours after they first opened the backpack, the protection lawyer wrote in her submitting.
Prosecutors can overcome the problem if they’ll show the evidence would have inevitably been found legally in the course of the course of the investigation.
Even if the decide guidelines in favor of Mangione, prosecutors nonetheless have evidence of his DNA or fingerprints on a number of objects discarded by the shooter close to the crime scene, in accordance to court paperwork.
Friedman-Agnifilo additionally moved to suppress any statements Mangione made to regulation enforcement earlier than his December 19 extradition to New York, claiming officers didn’t correctly advise Mangione of his Miranda rights earlier than they started questioning him in the McDonald’s.
At the fast-food restaurant, Mangione allegedly gave police a fake ID bearing the identify “Mark Rosario,” however later informed them that was not his actual identify. The similar driver’s license was used to e-book a room on the New York City hostel that was tied to the suspect, prosecutors mentioned in court paperwork.
Mangione was learn his Miranda warnings about 20 minutes after he was first approached by the officers, in accordance to his lawyer. After that, he exercised his proper to stay silent.