Luigi Mangione, who is charged with assassinating the chief executive of a health insurer a year ago, will argue in state court in New York this week that some evidence should be excluded from a trial.
Mr. Mangione, 27, was arrested on Dec. 9, 2024, five days after the executive, Brian Thompson, was shot while walking into a Hilton hotel on West 54th Street to prepare for a UnitedHealthcare investor gathering.
This week’s hearings, which begin Monday and are expected to last several days, will be the first time Mr. Mangione will appear at the Manhattan criminal courthouse since the judge overseeing the state case, Gregory Carro, threw out terrorism charges against him in September. Mr. Mangione still faces an accusation of second-degree murder and other charges, and if convicted, he could receive a sentence of 25 years to life. He also faces federal charges.
Justice Carro ordered the hearings after Mr. Mangione’s lawyers argued that the police violated his constitutional rights during his arrest in Altoona, Pa., and so physical evidence taken from his backpack and the statements he made at the time should not be allowed.
Here’s what to know about what’s being argued this week:
A Parade of Witnesses
Prosecutors will most likely call a score of witnesses to testify and be cross-examined. The outcome could be consequential, according to Amber Baylor, founding director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at Columbia’s law school.
“It can significantly impact whether or not a case is going to trial and then what will happen at trial,” Ms. Baylor said.
Courts are hesitant to suppress key information, Ms. Baylor said, and exceptions often allow the use of evidence that was collected illegally.
Prosecution witnesses are likely to be mostly law enforcement agents, including the officers who arrested Mr. Mangione. Prosecutors could also show footage, including body-worn camera footage from the scene of his arrest, according to legal experts.
In a filing this year, prosecutors said 25 witnesses testified before the state’s grand jury, six of them from Altoona and the remainder from New York law enforcement agencies.
The defense has asked to call two employees of the Altoona Police Department as witnesses.
What Happened in Altoona
Mr. Thompson’s killing quickly became one of the nation’s biggest stories, and images of the man the police said was the shooter were ubiquitous as the search went beyond New York City.
Around 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 9, two Altoona police officers approached Mr. Mangione at a McDonald’s, according to a defense motion. They asked Mr. Mangione to pull down his mask and asked for his name, telling him that someone had called the police because “they thought he was suspicious.”
The officers asked for Mr. Mangione’s identification and he produced a fake one that matched what the gunman had used at a New York hostel, prosecutors have said. Shortly after, one of the officers called a colleague to say he was “100 percent sure” that Mr. Mangione was the suspect, according to a defense filing.
Officers continued to speak with Mr. Mangione, patting him down and moving his backpack away from him, his lawyers wrote.
Later, after he was informed of his rights, he was searched again and handcuffed. An officer searched his backpack — without a warrant — and continued after Mr. Mangione was taken away, his lawyers said.
During the search at the McDonald’s and later at a police station, officers found a handgun, a silencer, “a red notebook containing Mr. Mangione’s personal writings, additional writings, a computer chip, an iPhone and several USB flash drives,” his lawyers wrote.
Disputed Evidence
Mr. Mangione’s lawyers have asked that the judge suppress several of his statements, arguing that the officers in Pennsylvania violated his rights.
“From the time they first approached Mr. Mangione, the officers intentionally placed themselves in such a way to ensure Mr. Mangione could not leave,” they wrote.
The lawyers have also asked that the evidence collected from his backpack not be allowed at trial because the officers took it without a warrant. They also asked that prosecution witnesses, who could number more than 20, not mention any of the contents of the writings found in it.
Bennett L. Gershman, a Pace University law professor who specializes in prosecutorial ethics, said that people and their belongings are routinely searched at the time of an arrest to ensure the police’s safety and to make sure evidence is not destroyed.
“There are a number of situations where the Supreme Court has said that you don’t need a warrant,” he said.
Hurubie Meko is a Times reporter covering criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney’s office and state courts.
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