In a landmark pre-trial ruling released Monday, New York State Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro has carved out a narrow middle ground in the high-profile murder case against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in late 2024. The judge approved the admission of a handgun and handwritten writings found in Mangione’s backpack during a post-arrest search at a Pennsylvania police station, but barred prosecutors from using multiple other pieces of evidence collected during an initial warrantless search at a local Altoona McDonald’s, citing constitutional violations.
The 26-year-old suspect stands accused of fatally shooting Thompson on a busy Manhattan street in December 2024, just days before law enforcement tracked him to the western Pennsylvania McDonald’s following a multi-state nationwide manhunt. When officers responded to a tip from a member of the public who recognized Mangione from publicly released suspect photos, they approached the suspect to question his identity. Roughly 48 minutes after the initial interaction began, officers read Mangione his Miranda rights, the standard U.S. criminal procedure warning that informs suspects of their right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination.
During the pre-Miranda interaction at the restaurant, an officer conducted an unwarranted search of Mangione’s backpack, uncovering a loaded gun magazine, a passport, a cellphone, a wallet, a computer chip, and a Faraday bag designed to shield electronic devices from external signal monitoring. After Mangione was taken into custody, law enforcement conducted a second, more comprehensive inventory search of his belongings at the Altoona police station, where they found the handgun that prosecutors intend to present as the murder weapon, along with a red journal containing Mangione’s writings.
Mangione’s defense team launched an aggressive pre-trial motion to suppress all evidence collected from the McDonald’s encounter, as well as all statements Mangione made to officers during the initial questioning. They argued that the warrantless search of the defendant’s personal property violated his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, and that the pre-Miranda questioning violated his due process rights. Prosecutors countered that all police actions followed lawful protocol and that the evidence should be admissible at trial.
After hearing several days of pre-trial arguments in late 2024, Judge Carro ruled in favor of the defense on multiple key points. All evidence recovered during the initial McDonald’s search—including the loaded magazine, cellphone, passport, wallet, and computer chip—must be suppressed, he ruled, because the search was deemed improper and conducted without a valid warrant. In addition, all statements Mangione made to officers before he was read his Miranda rights, including answers to questions about lying about his identity and whether he carried fake identification, are also excluded from the state trial.
However, the ruling handed prosecutors a critical victory by clearing the way for them to present the handgun and red journal found during the police station inventory search—two of the most high-stakes pieces of evidence in the case. While the suppression of multiple pieces of evidence marks a significant win for the defense, the ability to introduce the murder weapon and the defendant’s own writings leaves prosecutors with core evidence to present to the jury.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all state charges, which include second-degree murder, multiple firearms offenses, and stalking. He also faces separate federal charges in connection with Thompson’s killing, and has entered a not guilty plea in that case as well. During Monday’s brief hearing, Mangione appeared in court dressed in a navy blue suit, whispering to one member of his legal team as lead defense attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo conferred with the judge and prosecution at the front of the courtroom. The back of the courtroom was filled with multiple rows of spectators and supporters of Mangione, several of whom wore printed shirts calling for his exoneration.
The state murder trial is scheduled to begin in September 2025, and the ruling has now cleared up the major pre-trial evidence dispute that had dominated procedural proceedings in the case for months.
