A New York state judge threw alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione a bone at a Monday hearing, determining that certain pieces of evidence are barred from the trial because of the way local police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, handled his arrest.
Critically, however, Judge Gregory Carro ruled that items that will be permitted at trial include a handgun found in Mangione’s backpack and a red notebook containing alleged references to the brazen daylight murder of Brian Thompson, head of UnitedHealthcare.
Thompson was shot dead in midtown Manhattan in December 2024, just before an annual investors’ conference, setting off a massive nationwide manhunt for his killer.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges as he faces a potential life sentence in a trial that is scheduled to begin Sept. 8. He appeared in court wearing a navy suit and pale blue shirt without a tie, and gazed in the direction of his attorneys as they conferred for several minutes with Carro.
The judge briefly explained his reasoning in court, saying the Altoona officers conducted an “improper, warrantless search” of Mangione’s backpack at the McDonald’s where he was eating breakfast the day of his arrest.
“Therefore, the evidence found during the search of the backpack at the McDonald’s must be suppressed, including the [loaded] magazine, cellphone, passport, wallet and computer chip,” Carro said in his written ruling.
Carro then reasoned that items discovered in Mangione’s backpack after it had been taken to a police station and reopened were permitted to be shown to jurors.
Those items included the gun, a silencer, a USB drive and the red notebook.
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A handful of Mangione’s supporters were seen in the courtroom, having obtained press passes from the city. They appeared cautiously optimistic toward the ruling.
A customer at McDonald’s had allegedly recognized Mangione from images of a suspect released by law enforcement and urged staff to call local police.
The first officers arrived around 9:28 a.m. But within an hour, about a dozen Altoona officers had pulled up. They could be seen standing around the McDonald’s on officers’ body camera footage shown in court at evidence hearings late last year.
The hearings, which spanned multiple weeks, consisted of testimony from several of the law enforcement officers who responded, along with employees of the Pennsylvania jail where Mangione was first taken.
One of the officers could be heard on body camera footage saying, “It’s him, dude. It’s him, 100%.”
Prosecutors argued that the officers’ initial search of the backpack was proper because they needed to check for hazardous items.
Body camera footage showed a female officer performing the initial, partial search, unearthing some food items and the magazine wrapped in a pair of wet underwear. Mangione was wearing several pairs of pants when the officers encountered him, and multiple jackets.
He had initially identified himself under a false name and had several false pieces of identification on his person, according to testimony. Carro noted that some initial statements Mangione gave to the officers would not be permitted at trial because it was not clear whether or not he was in custody when he made them.
The judge determined that Mangione was brought into custody “at about 9:47 a.m.”
“Therefore, the responses given to the officers’ questions that were interrogation or the functional equivalent including [Officer] Fox asking why defendant had lied about his name, [Officer] Frye also asking why he had lied, and Fox asking if he had a fake ID — will be suppressed,” Carro wrote.
Law enforcement later obtained a search warrant for the bag.
Mangione is currently housed at a notorious New York federal prison awaiting trial on both state and federal charges.
The federal case, which involves stalking counts, is set to begin on Oct. 13.
Outside the courthouse Monday, a small number of supporters stood waiting to see if Mangione’s attorneys made a statement to the press. (They did not.)
Ashley Rojas is one of a trio of women who described themselves as the “Mangionistas,” a group that sees itself as advocates for Mangione who are also focused on “youth engagement.” Another “Mangionista,” Lena Weissbrot, told reporters outside the courthouse that “most average Americans support him” and are “fed up with being exploited and treated like cattle” by health insurance corporations.
“We’re pretty much the most cucked and submissive population in all of human history,” she added.
Rojas asserted that she did not “give a flying fuck” that Thompson died, according to New York Daily News reporter Molly Crane-Newman. Weissbrot chimed in to say that Thompson’s children were likely “better off without him.”