Legal proceedings come on anniversary of shooting death of UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson
1 of 3 | Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court for an evidentiary hearing in the murder case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on Thursday. Pool Photo by Curtis Means/UPI | License Photo
A police officer who questioned Luigi Mangione in an Altoona, Pa., McDonalds testified in court Thursday in a pre-trial evidentiary hearing.
The testimony came on the third day of the hearing in which Mangione’s lawyers are trying to have evidence gained by police without a warrant suppressed. It’s also the one-year anniversary of the shooting of UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson, 50, for which Mangione is charged.
Mangione, 27, is accused of fatally shooting Thompson on a sidewalk in Manhattan. He was captured five days later in the Pennsylvania McDonalds.
Mangione and his lawyers are in court to get his first statements, his notebook and a gun found in his backpack excluded from evidence at trial because police seized them before they had a search warrant.
Legal scholars acknowledge the hearing is important, but it’s a long shot.
“These are not totally implausible arguments being made by the defense, and to allow those arguments to be made there has to be a hearing,” said Christopher Slobogin, a Vanderbilt University Law School scholar and director of its criminal justice program, to Fox News. “And the facts are complicated enough that the hearing apparently has to be more than one day in order to establish the relevant facts.”
Police patrolman Tyler Frye testified Thursday morning, and his bodycam footage was played for the court.
Frye pointed out Mangione in court and said when he arrived, the manager pointed him in the direction of where he sat, eating a hashbrown.
On the video, another officer is heard asking Mangione, “Do you know what all this nonsense is about?” Mangione replied, “We’re going to find out I guess,” ABC News reported.
Mangione gave the officers a fake New Jersey ID for a Mark Rosario.
Officers then informed Mangione he was under official police investigation and asked him his real name. Frye, on the video, is seen writing the name “Luigi Mangione” and his date of birth in a small notebook. At that point, police read Mangione his Miranda rights.
Prosecutor Joel Seiderman asked Frye where he was in relation to Mangione’s backpack and when he became aware of it. Frye said he was “right near it” and that he saw it as soon as he walked in.
The Mapp hearing is expected to last several days.
National Guard patrols New York City subways
National Guard troops patrol the subway at Grand Central Station in New York City on March 7, 2024. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
