By Jack Queen
NEW YORK, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Luigi Mangione told a prison guard he had a 3D-printed gun in his backpack after his arrest for allegedly gunning down a UnitedHealthcare executive, according to testimony at a court hearing to determine whether prosecutors can use these statements and other evidence at his murder trial.
Mangione, 27, was arrested in December 2024 and charged with fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan. Mangione became a folk hero to some critics of steep U.S. healthcare costs. Public officials condemned the assassination.
Mangione’s statements to law enforcement and the contents of his backpack could be key pieces of evidence at his trial, but his lawyers argue they should be inadmissible because he was illegally searched and not given notice of his legal rights.
Prosecutors deny claims that Mangione was illegally searched and questioned.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges and is expected to face trial next year. He has pleaded not guilty in a separate federal case where prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.
Mangione wore a grey suit and a white shirt with a red checkered pattern during the court hearing, set to continue on Tuesday before Justice Gregory Carro.
GUARD SAYS MANGIONE TOLD HIM ABOUT GUN
A prison guard testified that Mangione told him without prompting that he had a 3D-printed pistol in his backpack, which police say they found along with a silencer and journal writings that allegedly implicate him in the killing.
A defense lawyer cast doubt on the guard’s assertion that Mangione volunteered such incriminating information on his own and sought to show the guard may have questioned him without advising him of his rights.
“You weren’t asking him any questions, you weren’t speaking to him at all… And out of nowhere he says to you, ‘I had a 3D-printed pistol’?” defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked.
The guard said he did not ask Mangione any questions and testified during follow-up questioning by a prosecutor that he did not care about the outcome of the case.
DEFENSE SEEKS TO BLOCK EVIDENCE
Prosecutors with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have opposed Mangione’s requests to suppress the evidence.
Surveillance footage played on Monday showed police speaking to Mangione in a McDonald’s restaurant for more than 30 minutes before arresting him, which could be important to the defense’s claim that he was questioned without being informed of his rights against self-incrimination.
The videos, which do not include audio, have not previously been played publicly.
Prosecutors also questioned a 911 emergency coordinator about a call by a McDonald’s worker in Altoona, Pennsylvania, who reported Mangione to the police after customers recognized him from the news.
“I have a customer here that some other customers are suspicious of who looks like the CEO shooter, and they’re really upset and they’re coming to me,” the employee was heard saying in a recording of a 911 emergency call played in court for the first time.
JUDGE PREVIOUSLY DISMISSED TERROR CHARGES
Mangione could face life in prison if convicted of murder in the second degree, which is defined as an intentional killing. He also faces seven counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of possessing a false identification.
Carro dismissed two terrorism counts against Mangione in September, finding prosecutors had not presented enough evidence that Mangione intended to intimidate health insurance workers or influence government policy.
Several supporters of Mangione appeared outside the courthouse before the hearing, including one dressed as the villain from the video game Super Mario Bros., bearing a sign that said, “When patients die, profits rise,” and a woman with a “Free Luigi” sash.
Trial dates have not been set in either the state or federal cases. Mangione has been held in federal custody in Brooklyn since his arrest.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell, Lisa Shumaker, Noeleen Walder, Rod Nickel and David Gregorio)
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