Luigi Mangione’s suppression hearings began at New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan this morning, as his defense team argued against admission of evidence acquired during his Dec. 9, 2024 arrest. New information made public includes a conversation Mangione allegedly had with a corrections officer, the contents of the 911 call from a McDonald’s manager, and video of Mangione’s arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Mangione is facing second-degree murder charges brought against him in the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to all state and federal charges against him, had his last state court appearance in September.
On Monday, Mangione appeared in court at 10:45 a.m. dressed in a grey suit jacket, patterned button-down, and no tie. He took notes during the proceedings, which included video footage of both the shooting of Thompson, as well as Mangione’s arrest in an Altoona McDonald’s. Several times, Mangione glanced back at the press and about two dozen supporters, who were sitting in the back rows of the court room.
These pre-trial hearings, which began on Monday, are expected to take place over multiple days, and will determine whether evidence acquired during Mangione’s arrest is admissible in court. Mangione’s defense team will argue that police didn’t have a warrant to search Mangione’s backpack, which he had with him at the time of his arrest. Evidence seized from the backpack includes a 3D-printed gun, silencer, notebooks and letters allegedly written by Mangione, as well as electronic devices.
Karen Friedman Agnifilo leads Mangione’s defense team, along with her husband Marc Agnifilo and attorney Jacob Kaplan. Mangione’s Pennsylvania lawyer, Tom Dickey, was also in court on Monday, but not seated at the defense table.
Two Corrections Officers Speak
One of the most lively moments of Monday’s pre-trial hearing occurred when a correctional officer from State Corrections Institute Huntington, where Mangione was initially held, testified about his conversations with Mangione while he was in custody. The witness, Tomas Rivers, is British and said that Mangione was held in a special part of the prison for people who might be capable of self-harm, or could be threatened by other inmates.
“I was told that SCI Huntington did not want an Epstein style situation,” said Rivers, prompting laughter from the courtroom audience.
Rivers was repeatedly asked if he had special interest in Mangione’s case and said no, repeatedly responding “I don’t care” about the case. Rivers said he and Mangione talked about Mangione’s travels in Vietnam and Thailand. (It has not been previously reported that Mangione ever visited Vietnam, and Friedman Agnifilo made a point of highlighting Rivers bringing up Vietnam.)
“He was telling me about something he witnessed,” said Rivers. “It was a gang fight between ladyboys in Thailand [and he] brought up something to do with monkeys on public transport.”
Rivers said they also spoke about literature, including George Orwell, Henry David Thoreau and Aldous Huxley. Mangione recommended Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception to Rivers, who declined to read it, drily stating “don’t care” when asked why he didn’t. Mangione vigorously took notes as Rivers gave his testimony.
Rivers testified that he and Mangione spoke about private versus nationalized healthcare and said Mangione was interested in how the public was perceiving the United Healthcare shooting.
Rivers said he told Mangione what he perceived, which was, “Mainstream media and traditional TV news focused on the crime, whereas people on social media were talking about wrongdoings, potential wrongdoings in the healthcare industry.”
Rivers testified that Mangione was upset that he was being compared to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski because it was being reported in the media that Mangione had reviewed his manifesto on Goodreads. Separately, Rivers added that Mangione said he wanted to make a public statement but Rivers never asked Mangione what it was because he wasn’t responsible for investigating the case and was just making conversation. Overall, Rivers viewed Mangione as “calm” and “unbothered.” While Mangione was in custody at SCI Huntington he was provided books and printouts of email sent to him.
After Rivers, another correctional officer, Matthew Henry, testified that Mangione talked to him about having a 3D-printed gun and foreign currency on him during his arrest.
“So he blurted out to you that he had a 3D pistol?” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said during his cross-examination. “You weren’t saying anything to him — and out of nowhere — he says ‘I have a 3D-printed pistol?!’”
Henry repeatedly stated that he wasn’t asking any questions of Mangione and confirmed he never wrote anything down about Mangione’s alleged comments about the 3D printed gun.
Details of the Arrest
Earlier on Monday, the prosecution entered a recording of the 911 call made by a McDonald’s employee at 9:14 a.m. on Dec. 9, 2024 into evidence, playing the audio for the courtroom. “I have a customer here that other customers were suspicious of, that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York,” the manager said, telling the operator it isn’t an emergency but she wanted to let law enforcement know. “They’re really upset and they came to me and I’m like ‘I can’t approach him, you know.’”
“The only thing you can see is his eyebrows,” the manager added, when asked to provide a description in addition to his tan beanie, black jacket, and blue medical mask. “Kind of hard to tell with just his eyes and his eyebrows.” At one point an employee can be heard saying “Bagel, no butter” on the call, which prompted laughter from the courtroom audience and a smile from Mangione.
In the video surveillance footage of Mangione’s arrest, taken from McDonald’s security cameras and played in court on Monday, Mangione is shown walking in at 8:59 a.m. Police arrive around 9:28 a.m., and head to the back of the McDonald’s where they speak with Mangione. He continues to eat his food, even after he is patted down by officers. In the video, Mangione fully takes off his mask and sits with his arms crossed. At around 9:50 a.m., Mangione is handcuffed and a police officer walks over and snaps a photo of him on his phone. This photo would become the first picture released of Mangione in custody.
Mangione’s defense team has asked that Judge Gregory Carro bar the prosecution, led by New York Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann, from introducing any writings from these notebooks into evidence at the hearing, or testifying about its contents, citing doing so could be “irreparably prejudice” Mangione at his multiple upcoming trials. Mangione’s defense will also seek to suppress Mangione’s statements to law enforcement at the time of his arrest, claiming officers violated his Fifth Amendment rights by failing to read him his Miranda warnings.
Mangione’s supporters began camping outside of the courtroom on Saturday afternoon, sleeping in tents with heaters to escape the 30-degree weather and rain. They handed out neon green paper wristbands with “We are with Luigi” printed on them and made beaded friendship bracelets with “free him” plus their spot numbers to mark their place in line.
In the courtroom, some supporters tried to catch Mangione’s eyes when he looks back toward them. One supporter’s t-shirt read “11 minutes of bodycam footage missing.” Next to her someone wore a shirt saying, “Without a warrant it’s not a search it’s a violation.”
At Mangione’s September New York state court appearance, the terrorism charges against him were dismissed, with Judge Carro ruling the evidence as “legally insufficient.”
His next federal court appearance, where charges against him could lead to the death penalty, is set for January.
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