NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down a healthcare CEO, appeared in court Tuesday for what is likely his final pretrial hearing before his state murder trial begins next month.
Mangione, 28, walked into court wearing a gray suit and a white collared shirt. He is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, in the back and leg as Thompson left a Manhattan hotel on the morning of Dec. 4, 2024.
Mangione faces a murder charge in his state trial, set for Sept. 8. He also faces stalking charges in a federal trial set to begin in January. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
Defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo argued in a recent court filing that state court officials and prosecutors had teamed up on a media plan that would limit press access during the jury selection process to just six handpicked reporters.
Prosecutors and the Manhattan district attorney’s office denied having a role in picking which reporters can attend the jury selection process, which is handled by the Office of Court Administration.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Gregory Carro slapped down the defense’s accusation.
“At no time did the district attorney’s office participate in those discussions, nor did it play any role in determining public access,” Carro said. “Any suggestion the district attorney’s office was involved is simply incorrect.”
Carro said the defense’s objections “reflect a reckless mischaracterization of the efforts undertaken by this court to ensure transparency and public access.”
“So, I don’t want to hear any more about this,” he added.
Carro said there will be an overflow room for other members of the press during next month’s jury selection. All jurors will remain anonymous, he ruled.
Mangione was spotted at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s five days after Thompson’s killing. More than a dozen officers involved in his arrest took the stand in December and said they found items in his backpack including a 9 mm untraceable ghost handgun with a 3D-printed handle, a homemade silencer, hollow-point bullets, several USBs, a digital camera, $7,807 in U.S. currency, and another $1,620 in foreign currency. The backpack also contained a red notebook that prosecutors have characterized as Mangione’s manifesto.
In May, Carro ruled that Altoona officers conducted an “improper, warrantless search” of Mangione’s backpack.
“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.
However, Carro also ruled at the time 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 — that includes a gun, a silencer, a USB drive and the red notebook.