A New York state judge ruled Monday that key evidence can be used in the murder trial of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing a healthcare company CEO in New York in December 2024.
Judge Gregory Carro of the New York Supreme Court said prosecutors can use as evidence a gun found in Mangione’s backpack and notes detailing his frustrations with the healthcare industry.
Mangione faces trial in September on second-degree murder and other charges in the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after Thompson was killed.
Carro ruled that some of the evidence found in the search of the backpack, which includes a loaded magazine for a handgun, a cellphone, a passport, a wallet and a computer chip, was unlawfully collected because Mangione was not in custody, but he did not have sufficient control over the backpack when it was taken and searched by authorities.
The gun and notebook, however, were found through a valid inventory search at the police station, according to the judge’s decision.
The ruling follows a nine-day suppression hearing in which Mangione’s defense attorneys argued the gun, notes and other contents of his bag should be excluded as evidence from the state trial because the bag was searched by authorities without a warrant, which the defense said was unlawful. Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office argued the search was lawful.
The judge also denied Mangione’s bid to exclude the statements he initially made to law enforcement during his arrest in Pennsylvania, rejecting his argument that he was illegally interrogated because he was not given notice of his legal rights. Manhattan prosecutors denied that claim.
Body camera footage reviewed in the suppression hearing shows a police officer reading Mangione his Miranda rights before handcuffing him following an exchange about Mangione’s real name, which the shooting suspect initially lied about.
Mangione’s responses to questions about why he lied and whether the identification he presented was fake will be struck from trial, Carro ruled, but his responses to “questions about defendant’s real name, his date of birth and his middle initial will not be suppressed, as they are admissible as pedigree information.”
Police began to search Mangione’s backpack on a table at the McDonald’s, which revealed the loaded magazine, passport, phone and wallet, according to the ruling. Authorities then took the bag to the Altoona police station and searched it. Officers said they found a 3D-printed gun, a silencer and a notebook with what Manhattan prosecutors described as a “manifesto.” The findings were inventoried at the police station.
Carro’s ruling is a partial win for Mangione’s legal team, but the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office expressed confidence in the evidence they will be allowed to present when the trial begins on Sept. 8. The trial is expected to last for six weeks or more, and Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The midday shooting of Thompson on a busy sidewalk in midtown Manhattan and Mangione’s subsequent arrest sparked nationwide discourse and protests over the cost of healthcare in the United States.
The post Judge allows key evidence in Luigi Mangione’s New York murder trial appeared first on MS NOW.
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