{"id":235682,"date":"2026-05-18T18:59:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/235682\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T18:59:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:59:55","slug":"judge-allows-gun-and-notebook-as-evidence-at-mangiones-trial-in-unitedhealthcare-ceos-killing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/235682\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge allows gun and notebook as evidence at Mangione\u2019s trial in UnitedHealthcare CEO\u2019s killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2013 A gun and notebook that prosecutors say link Luigi Mangione<\/a> to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson<\/a> can be used as evidence at his murder trial, a judge ruled Monday, rejecting a defense argument that they were seized illegally.<\/p>\n

Judge Gregory Carro\u2019s decision, five months after he held a hearing to examine<\/a> how police came upon the items, is a major win for prosecutors, enabling them to show jurors a possible murder weapon and motive. That mirrors an earlier ruling in Mangione\u2019s federal case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Carro also excluded items officers pulled from Mangione\u2019s backpack before his arrest at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He said the loaded gun magazine, cellphone, passport, wallet and computer chip resulted from an \u201cimproper warrantless search.\u201d He also excluded some statements he made to police before he was handcuffed.<\/p>\n

The judge did allow items found as officers inventoried the backpack’s contents later at a police station \u2014 including a 3D-printed pistol prosecutors say matches the one used to kill Thompson, and a notebook that describes wanting to \u201cwack\u201d a health insurance executive. Carro said such inventory searches are an exception to the U.S. Constitution\u2019s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Police obtained a search warrant hours later.<\/p>\n

Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9, 2024, five days after Thompson was killed outside a Manhattan hotel<\/a>. Altoona is about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. <\/p>\n

Mangione, 28, didn’t speak as Carro summarized his decision. About two dozen of his supporters, some wearing \u201cFree Luigi\u201d T-shirts, crowded the courtroom’s gallery.<\/p>\n

Mangione\u2019s state murder trial<\/a> is set to begin on Sept. 8, and his federal trial, which involves stalking charges, on Oct. 13. The federal judge ruled all of backpack’s contents into evidence.<\/p>\n

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and could spend his life in prison if convicted in either case.<\/p>\n

Both sides win something in this ruling<\/p>\n

Mangione\u2019s lawyers argued<\/a> that the searches were illegal because officers had no warrant when they looked through the backpack.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors argued that the initial search at the McDonald’s was legal because it was conducted in conjunction with an arrest and because officers followed Altoona police protocols requiring them to check for dangerous items. But Carro said New York law applies, and that officers had eliminated the justification for an immediate safety search by moving the backpack outside Mangione’s \u201cgrabbable area\u201d as other restaurant customers passed nearby.<\/p>\n

Citing body-worn camera video, Carro also ruled out some statements Mangione made when he was effectively in custody but not yet apprised of his right to remain silent.<\/p>\n

Mangione told police early on he didn\u2019t want to talk<\/a>, but officers engaged him for almost 20 minutes<\/a> before getting him to admit that he had given them a fake name and phony New Jersey driver’s license. An NYPD lieutenant testified in December that the shooter had used the same name \u2014 Mark Rosario \u2014 to buy a bus ticket to New York and stay at a Manhattan hostel.<\/p>\n

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind on Dec. 4, 2024, as the executive walked to his company\u2019s annual investor conference. Police say \u201cdelay,\u201d \u201cdeny\u201d and \u201cdepose\u201d were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.<\/p>\n

Officer\u2019s decision to pause search may have tilted ruling<\/p>\n

Mangione was not yet under arrest, let alone subject to a judicial search warrant, when officers initially responded to a 911 call about a man who looked like the suspect in Thompson\u2019s killing. They began searching his backpack, but stopped after finding the gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear. They also found the notebook, Carro noted, but did not open it or see the writings at that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s him, dude. It\u2019s him, 100%,\u201d Altoona Police Officer Stephen Fox said on body-worn camera video before telling his colleague to pause the search and resume at the station. \u201cLet\u2019s just take it back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That momentary decision likely preserved the prosecution\u2019s ability to use the gun and notebook as evidence at trial. Carro said evidence logged in the subsequent inventory search, including apparent to-do lists and getaway plans, is admissible.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have quoted extensively from Mangione\u2019s handwritten diary in court filings, noting his praise for Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and his musings about rebelling against \u201cthe deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 A gun and notebook that prosecutors say link Luigi Mangione to the killing of UnitedHealthcare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[6972,288,33766,2953,6974,75,84,83,31034,9,24,63,37884,421],"class_list":["post-235682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-brian-thompson","tag-business","tag-gregory-carro","tag-health","tag-luigi-mangione","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-mark-rosario","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-stephen-fox","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}