Luigi Mangione back in court for dispute over evidence in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing case

NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is back in court on Tuesday for the second day of a hearing in his bid to bar New York prosecutors from using some key evidence they say links him to last year’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Various law enforcement officers are taking the witness stand Tuesday.

The pretrial hearing in Mangione’s state murder case has featured surveillance videos of the killing on a Manhattan sidewalk and security footage of his arrest five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Lawyers for Mangione, 27, want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual Manhattan trial about statements he allegedly made and items authorities said they seized from his backpack during his arrest. The objects include a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.

The defense contends the items should be excluded because police didn't get a warrant before searching Mangione's backpack. They also want to suppress some statements Mangione made to law enforcement personnel, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers started asking questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.

The laws concerning how police interact with potential suspects before reading their rights or obtaining search warrants are complex and often disputed in criminal cases.

In Mangione's case, crucial questions will include whether he believed he was free to leave at the point when he spoke to the arresting officers, and whether there were “exigent circumstances” that merited searching his backpack before getting a warrant.

Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Neither trial has been scheduled.

Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases, but this week’s hearing pertains only to the state case.

Manhattan prosecutors haven't yet laid out their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Their federal counterparts have said in court filings that police were justified in searching the backpack to ensure there were no dangerous items and that Mangione's statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.

Five witnesses testified on Monday, including a Pennsylvania prison officer who said Mangione told him that, when arrested, he had a backpack with foreign currency and a 3D-printed pistol.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as the executive walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Prosecutors say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase insurance industry critics use to describe how companies avoid paying claims.

Thompson, 50, worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021. He was married and had children who were in high school.

Mangione was arrested as he ate breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. The restaurant’s manager had told a 911 dispatcher, “I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of — that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York.”

The manager said she could only see Mangione's eyebrows because he had a beanie pulled down close to his eyes and was wearing a medical face mask.

Altoona Police Officer Joseph Detwiler testified Tuesday that when he was dispatched to the eatery, he was so dubious about the tip that he didn’t turn on his patrol car’s lights and sirens.

“I didn't think it was going to be him,” the officer said.