Luigi Mangione, 27, is alleged to have fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson before sparking a five-day manhunt which ended after he was spotted in a McDonald’s
Alleged healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione was reportedly spotted in McDonald’s after customers “grew suspicious of his eyebrows.”
The alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has returned to court on Tuesday for the second day of a hearing in his bid to bar New York prosecutors from using key evidence that they argue links him to the killing. The pretrial hearing in Mangione’s state murder case featured surveillance videos of the brazen killing on a Manhattan pavement as well as security footage of his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s five days later.
Lawyers for the 27-year-old want to block prosecutors from showing or telling the jury about statements he allegedly made as well as the items authorities seized from him during the arrest. They include a 9mm handgun that reportedly matches the one used in the killing.
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Mangione was apprehended while he ate breakfast at the McDonald’s about 230 miles away from where the shooting happened. The restaurants manager told a 911 operator: “I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of – that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York.”
The manager said she could only see Mangione’s eyebrows because he had a beanie pulled down close to his eyes and was wearing a medical face mask. Altoona Police Officer Joseph Detwiler testified today that when he was dispatched to the restaurant that he was so dubious about the tip that he did not turn on the patrol car’s lights and sirens.
“I didn’t think it was going to be him,” the officer said. In the case, crucial questions will include whether he believed he was free to leave at the point when he spoke to arresting officers and if there were “exigent circumstances” that merited searching his backpack before getting a warrant.
Mangione, the Ivy League-educated son from a wealthy family from Maryland, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The state carries the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Neither trial has been scheduled. Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases, but this week’s hearing only focuses on the state case.
Prosecutors have not yet laid out their arguments for allowing their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Their federal counterparts have said in court filings that police were justified in searching the backpack to ensure there were no dangerous items and that Mangione’s statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.
