Luigi Mangione's defence argues evidence found in search should be excluded

Moments after Luigi Mangione was lay in handcuffs at a pa. McDonald's, a constabulary ship's officer trenchant his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear.

The discovery, recounted in court Monday as Mangione fights to exclude evidence from his New York murder case, convinced police in Altoona, Penn., that he was the man wanted for killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan five days earlier.

"It's him, dude. It's him, 100 per cent," an officer was heard saying on body-worn camera video from Mangione's arrest on Dec. 9, 2024, punctuating the remark with expletives as the officer combing the bag, Christy Wasser, held up the magazine.

Wasser, a 19-year Altoona police veteran, testified on the fourth day of a pretrial hearing as Mangione seeks to bar prosecutors from using the magazine and other evidence against him, including a 9 mm handgun and a notebook that were found during a subsequent bag search.

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Mangione's lawyers argue the items should be excluded because police didn't have a search warrant and lacked the exigent circumstances to justify a warrantless search. Prosecutors contend the search was legal and that police eventually obtained a warrant.

Wasser, testifying in full uniform, said Altoona police protocols require promptly searching a suspect's property at the time of an arrest, in part for dangerous items.

On body-worn camera video played in court, Wasser was heard saying she wanted to check the bag for bombs before removing it from the McDonald's. Despite that concern, she acknowledged in her testimony Monday that police never cleared the restaurant of customers or employees.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. He appeared in good health on Monday, pumping his fist for photographers and chatting with his lawyers as testimony resumed.

The hearing, which was postponed Friday because of Mangione's apparent illness, applies only to the state case. His lawyers are making a similar push to exclude the evidence from his federal case, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

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Prosecutors have said the handgun found in the backpack matches the firearm used in the killing and that writings in the notebook showed Mangione's disdain for health insurers and ideas about killing a CEO at an investor conference.

Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for his company's investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say "delay," "deny" and "depose" were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, about 370 kilometres west of Manhattan, after police there received a 911 call about a McDonald's customer who appeared to resemble the suspect.

Wasser said that prior to responding to the McDonald's call, she had seen some coverage of Thompson's killing on Fox News, including the surveillance video of the shooting and images of the suspected shooter.

Wasser began searching his bag as officers took him into custody on initial charges of forgery and false identification, after he acknowledged giving them a bogus driver's licence, police said. The same fake name was used by the alleged gunman used at a Manhattan hostel days before the shooting.

By then, a handcuffed Mangione had been informed of his right to remain silent — and invoked it when asked if there was anything in the bag that officers should be concerned about.

Wasser told another officer she wanted to check the bag for a bomb before leaving the McDonald's because she didn't want to repeat an incident in which another Altoona officer had inadvertently brought a bomb to the police station.

"Did you call the bomb squad?" Mangione's lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo asked.

"No. I didn't find a bomb yet," Wasser responded.

According to body-worn camera video, the first few items Wasser found were innocuous: a hoagie, a loaf of bread and a smaller bag containing a passport, cellphone and computer chip.

Then she pulled out a gray pair of underwear, unwrapping them to reveal the magazine.

Satisfied there was no bomb, she suspended her search and placed some of the items back in the bag. She resumed her search at the police station, almost immediately finding the gun and silencer. Later, while cataloging everything in the bag in what's known as an inventory search, she found the notebook.

A Blair County, Penn., prosecutor testified that a judge later signed off on a search warrant for the bag, a few hours after the searches were completed. The warrant, she said, provided a legal mechanism for Altoona police to turn the evidence over to New York City detectives investigating Thompson's killing.

As he has through the case, assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann described Thompson's killing as an "execution" and referred to the notebook as a "manifesto" — terms that Mangione's lawyers said were prejudicial and inappropriate.

Judge Gregory Carro said the wording had "no bearing" on him, but warned Seidemann that he's "certainly not going to do that at trial" when jurors are present.

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