Luigi Mangione and his lawyers are is gearing up for marathon court hearings starting Monday in Manhattan in his state murder case, coming up on the first anniversary of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s execution-style killing on a Midtown sidewalk.
State Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro is slated to hear from more than 20 witnesses and rule on the admissibility of key evidence cops obtained during and after Mangione’s high-profile arrest in Pennsylvania following a nationwide manhunt, statements he allegedly made to authorities, and the trustworthiness of witness identifications.
Lawyers for the accused CEO killer expect to spend much of the week in court, having requested from the Bureau of Prisons five pairs of socks, two suits, three sweaters, and three pairs of pants ahead of the hearings.
The 26-year-old Maryland man has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and related offenses, accused of gunning down Thompson outside the Hilton Hotel as he arrived for an investor conference in the early morning hours of Dec. 4. Shell casings recovered at the scene allegedly bore words apparently hinting at health insurance companies routinely denying claims: deny, delay, and defend.
Carro, in September, knocked off the top counts of terrorism initially brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, finding they were inappropriate and saving Mangione from a potential sentence of life without parole if he were to be convicted.
Among the evidence his team has argued should be barred from the prosecution’s case, expected to make it before a jury in 2026, is the contents of a notebook cops allegedly recovered from his backpack — what law enforcement has described as a “manifesto” — two notes and any other writings found inside or anywhere else.
They have argued that the alleged scrawlings were obtained in a warrantless search that violated Mangione’s Fourth Amendment rights during his arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., five days after Thompson’s killing. Cops also recovered a 3D-printed ghost gun and silencer, among other items.
The Manhattan DA’s office has alleged that in one Aug. 15, 2024, notebook entry, Mangione wrote, “I finally feel confident about what l will do. The details are finally coming together. And I don’t feel any doubt about whether it’s right/justified. I’m glad – in a way – that I’ve procrastinated [because] it allowed me to learn more about [UnitedHealthcare].”
He wrote that he wanted to wack “the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention” in another entry, prosecutors allege.
According to filings by the defense in May, a patrolwoman on the scene was caught on body-cam footage saying she was thoroughly searching Mangione’s backpack after he was in cuffs to ensure there “wasn’t a bomb or anything in here,” and that when one of her colleagues noted they probably needed a search warrant, she stopped looking.
“If one were legitimately concerned about a bomb, one would have either continued searching right then and there or cleared the McDonalds and have called in and waited for the bomb squad to arrive before searching the bag, neither of which occurred,” Mangione’s lawyers wrote in May.
“[T]hese circumstances demonstrate that Patrolwoman Wasser did not search the bag because she reasonably thought there might be a bomb, but rather this was an excuse designed to cover up an illegal warrantless search of the backpack.”
Moreover, Mangione’s team says his alleged writings shouldn’t be presented at this week’s hearings, given the likelihood that potential jurors will encounter wall-to-wall media coverage. The Maryland man is separately facing federal charges in a capital case being tried by the Department of Justice.
“If the contents of these writings become public, they are virtually certain to reach potential jurors in this and in the parallel federal prosecution, including prospective federal jurors who will ultimately decide whether to impose the death penalty,” they wrote.
Mangione’s team has moved to suppress from the trial a single word that came out of his mouth to cops between Dec. 9 and Dec. 19, arguing the statements were inadmissible as he had not been read his Miranda rights.
Mangione’s lawyers have detailed in court docs that at the McDonald’s, after one officer advised another that Mangione was officially under investigation and needed to be read his rights, arresting officers continued to question him.
“Moments later, another officer asked Mr. Mangione twice why he lied about his name-all while being surrounded by nine uniformed police officers blocking Mr. Mangione’s exit from McDonald’s,” they wrote in May.
Mangione’s lawyers want to call Officer Garrett Trent and Patrolman Randy Miller from the Altoona police department to the stand at the hearings. As to the reliability of witness identifications included in the prosecution’s plans, Mangione’s lawyers have argued that some of the DA’s proposed witnesses should not be tasked with identifying him to the jury, as they were not eyewitnesses to the crime and had only viewed surveillance footage.
“[T]here is no allegation that Mr. Mangione altered his appearance after the alleged shooting and there is no reason to believe that the jury would need any assistance in making its own assessment of the video surveillance footage,” they wrote in May.
The hearings starting Monday are expected to see full attendance. Mangione’s alleged motivation to hold a top executive accountable for the increasingly unaffordable health insurance costs in the U.S. has led to overwhelming public support, almost without precedent. His appearances have attracted throngs of supporters.