Luigi Mangione was back in court Tuesday for a series of hearings over which evidence will be allowed during his trial in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last December in New York City. 

Mangione’s attorneys are arguing certain evidence should be excluded from his upcoming trial on state murder charges because of how they claim it was obtained. 

Police body camera footage, with accompanying audio, was played in court as the pretrial hearing continues. 

Mangione, 27, walked into the courtroom shortly before 10 a.m. and chatted with his lawyers. The hearing then began with the sixth witness to take the stand — a police officer from Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Mangione was taken into custody last year. 

Court took a brief recess around 11:30 a.m., and Mangione was led out with his hands cuffed behind his back. The hearing resumed a short time later, and then took a break for lunch until 2:15 p.m.

A small group of supporters had set up outside court Monday, but it appears the rain cleared most of them away Tuesday.  

“I knew it was him immediately,” officer testifies

Altoona Police Officer Joseph Detwiler testified about receiving the 911 dispatch for a man who was spotted at a McDonald’s, appearing to match the description of the person wanted for questioning in Thompson’s murder.

Detwiler said he responded without his lights or sirens on because, “I didn’t think it was gonna be him.” He said his lieutenant even joked that if he caught the New York City shooter, the lieutenant would buy him a hoagie.  

Body camera video shown in court showed officers approaching the man inside of the fast-food restaurant. 

Detwile said after responding, he asked the man in the restaurant to lower his mask.

“I knew it was him immediately,” Detwiler testified. 

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Photos from Pennsylvania State Police show the suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder eating what appears to be a hashbrown before his arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona.

Pennsylvania State Police/X

In the video, the officers asked for the man’s ID, and Detwiler testified that the name on it read, “Mark Rosario,” of New Jersey.

Detwiler said he remained calm and asked him if he’d been to New York recently. 

Detwiler said the man seemed nervous and his fingers were shaking. He said he frisked the man for his and his partners’ safety, but found nothing.   

All the while, the video shows the man eating hash browns and a steak sandwich, as Christmas music plays in the background. The officer was heard whistling along, and said in court he was trying to keep things calm and normal. 

He said they told the man they were confirming his ID, when they were really waiting for backup. He told Mangione they were working to confirm his ID to get him out of there, making up a story that police were there because the restaurant had a policy that if someone is there too long, they call police. Mangione had been there about 40 minutes. 

Detwiler said Mangione was the only person in the McDonald’s wearing a mask. 

He told Mangione’s attorney he was “100% sure that he was the male that they were looking for.” 

When his lieutenant arrived, he moved the man’s backpack away, testifying it felt heavy and he feared there could be a gun inside. 

The officer told Mangione he was going to be arrested for his false ID. Mangione can then be seen on the tape giving the officers his real name, and spelling it out. The officers then read Mangione his Miranda rights, and shortly thereafter handcuffed and searched. As he was being placed into custody, “Winter Wonderland” was playing at the restaurant. 

Officers said they found what “appeared to be a lot of money” including some foreign currency on him, and said he was wearing at least three layers of clothing. Police found a jar of peanut butter in his pocket, rope, and a small piece of paper. Mangione was then asked if there was anything in his bag police should know about. The bag was then searched. 

Defense attorneys argue there was no warrant for the search and want evidence from the backpack left out at trial, including a gun, notebook, and note to FBI. 

Detwiler testified the rule of the Altoona Police Department is they search everyone being arrested, including their person and their bags. 

After he was arrested, Mangione was later extradited from Pennsylvania to New York City and has been held at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for roughly a year, as he awaits trial on a slew of both state and federal charges. 

Mangione is due back in court Thursday. There’s no court Wednesday. 

Legal analyst explains what Luigi Mangione’s attorneys are after

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Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court during a state court evidentiary hearing in the murder case of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, in New York, on December 2, 2025.

Curtis Means / POOL /AFP via Getty Images

The first complaint Mangione’s attorneys want addressed is that some of his statements to law enforcement were made before he was issued his Miranda warnings. 

“The big thing I think they’re trying to get in is the fact that he allegedly gave a false identification when he was first approached by the police,” explained trial lawyer Richard Schoenstein. “That does not necessarily require a Miranda warning. The police don’t have to walk up to him and immediately launch into Miranda. They’re entitled to speak to him first, just not to go into any kind of questioning about the case before Miranda.”

The defense also wants the contents of Mangione’s backpack, including a notebook, to be thrown out because they say the bag was searched without a warrant. 

“The question is whether the police had reasonable grounds to search the bag, even though they didn’t have a warrant. What they’re saying, what the prosecution is contending, is that there was concern there might be a bomb or some other kind of weapon in the bag, and they had to look,” Schoenstein said. 

His attorneys are also pushing to exclude non-eyewitness identification during trial. 

“What the prosecution wants to do is play the video that supposedly shows Mangione at the scene or at other scenes, and then have a live witness say, ‘That’s him, that’s the guy, that’s the defendant,’ even though they weren’t there at the time,” Schoenstein explained. “In order to do that, they have to get somebody who is familiar enough with the defendant that their testimony would assist the jury in figuring out [if] that really is him in the video.”

Schoenstein said he expects the suppression hearings to last a few more days, and the judge will likely take some time before issuing a decision. As for when to expect Mangione’s state trial date, Schoenstein said possibly late spring or summer 2026. 

Mangione also faces separate federal charges, some of which carry the possibility of the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

What happened on Day 1 of Luigi Mangione’s pretrial hearings

During Monday’s hearing, prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office played surveillance video of the deadly shooting outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan nearly a year ago. 

They also showed video of Mangione’s arrest five days later at the McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. Until now, law enforcement had only shared still images of his arrest at the restaurant. 

The 911 call from the manager of the McDonald’s was also played in court. The manager could be heard explaining that customers were upset and believed Mangione looked like the man police were searching for in connection with Thompson’s killing. 

Mangione could be seen taking notes throughout Monday’s hearing, with his hands unshackled at the defense table, as his attorneys had requested.

Five witnesses were called to the stand Monday, including two correction officers. 

One officer testified that Mangione said he had a backpack containing foreign currency and a 3D-printed pistol at the time of his arrest. Another officer said his superintendent told him Mangione was under constant watch because the facility “did not want an Epstein situation,” referring to Jeffrey Epstein’s jail suicide in 2019. 

The second officer also testified that Mangione spoke about his travels, literature, health care and asked how he was being perceived. The officer said there was also a moment when Mangione said he wanted to make a statement to the public. 

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