By Jack Queen
NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) – Luigi Mangione is due in a New York court on Monday for a judge’s ruling on whether evidence found in the alleged assassin’s backpack can be presented at his trial on charges that he murdered a health insurance executive in Manhattan.
Mangione, 28, is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Midtown sidewalk in December 2024. Public officials condemned the brazen killing, but it became emblematic of many Americans’ antipathy for health insurance industry practices and rising costs.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty in state court to all charges. His trial is set to begin on September 8 and is expected to last six weeks.
Justice Gregory Carro is expected to rule on Monday on Mangione’s bid to suppress evidence allegedly found in his backpack during his arrest – including a pistol, silencer and journal entries – and his initial statements to law enforcement.
Mangione’s lawyers say police who arrested him in Pennsylvania unlawfully searched the backpack without a warrant and questioned him without first providing required notice of his legal rights.
Prosecutors deny that Mangione was illegally searched and questioned, saying police who spotted Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, followed legal protocols.
The backpack contains key evidence but is not make-or-break for prosecutors, who say they also have DNA and fingerprint evidence, a Mangione cell phone and hundreds of hours of surveillance footage linking him to the crime.
Thompson, who was CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s (UNH.N) insurance unit, was shot dead in the early morning outside a hotel where he was staying for an investor conference.
Graphic footage of the killing and a five-day manhunt for a suspect made the case a media fixture and social media sensation.
Most Americans condemned the killing, but some critics of for-profit healthcare support Mangione online and attend his court appearances in droves.
Mangione is set to stand trial on stalking charges in November in a separate federal case. He could have faced the death penalty until a judge’s surprise decision in January throwing out capital murder and weapons charges for legal reasons.
New York has banned the death penalty, but the federal government has not.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by William Mallard)
