Watch live from outside the courthouse where Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will appear on Monday (1 December) for hearings on the admissibility of key pieces of evidence at his murder trial.
Mangione’s lawyers had state terrorism charges thrown out in September. They are are now zeroing in on what they say was unconstitutional conduct that tainted his arrest and threatens his right to a fair trial.
Those items include a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the Dec. 4, 2024, killing and a notebook in which they say he detailed his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.
His legal team says that the gun and other items should be excluded because police lacked a warrant to search the backpack in which they were found. They also want to suppress some of his statements to the police, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers began asking questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.
Mr Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania following a manhunt after Mr Thompson, 50, was fatally shot in Manhattan on December 4, 2024.
He has pleaded not guilty to nine state counts, as well as four federal charges filed separately. The federal charges come with the possibility of the death penalty.
In September, Judge Gregory Carro dismissed the top two charges against Mr Mangione – murder in the first degree in furtherance of an act of terrorism and murder in the second degree as a crime of terrorism – after he found the evidence was “legally insufficient”.