Defence lawyers for Luigi Mangione, the man charged with the high-profile killing of a UnitedHealthcare executive in New York, are pushing to have crucial evidence—including a 3-D printed gun and a handwritten diary—thrown out of his upcoming murder trial. They argue police overstepped his constitutional rights during the arrest.
Key Evidence Under Scrutiny
The legal battle centres on events following the December 4, 2024 shooting of UnitedHealth Group Inc. CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel. After a five-day manhunt, Luigi Mangione, 27, was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. His defence team contends that police searched his backpack without a warrant and questioned him for approximately 20 minutes before informing him of his right to remain silent and to have an attorney present.
Prosecutors, however, are fighting to keep the evidence. They presented video footage from both the McDonald's and the Hilton Hotel crime scene during a pre-trial hearing that began on Monday, December 1, 2025. The hearing is expected to last several days and will significantly shape the case by determining what evidence a jury may hear.
Prison Guards Testify About Defendant's Statements
Testimony has revealed intriguing details about Mangione's behaviour after his arrest. Guards from the Huntingdon state prison in Pennsylvania, where he was initially held, recounted conversations they had with him under orders to monitor his comments closely.
Guard Matthew Henry testified that Mangione volunteered he had a backpack containing currency and a 3-D printed weapon, and mentioned being accused of being a foreign agent. Another guard, Tomas Rivers, described Mangione as "nice, logical and coherent." Rivers, a former British military veteran, said Mangione discussed literature by authors like George Orwell and Aldous Huxley and even recommended a book to read.
Rivers also revealed that the prison superintendent warned staff he "did not want an Epstein-style situation," referencing the financier Jeffrey Epstein's jail cell suicide in 2019.
Potential Impact on the Murder Case
While motions to suppress evidence are common in criminal trials, they rarely succeed in gutting a prosecution's case. If Mangione's lawyers are successful, however, it could weaken the case against him and strengthen his position in any potential plea negotiations. Prosecutors have charged him with second-degree murder and other crimes.
The diary, which the prosecution characterizes as a manifesto showing he planned to kill a healthcare executive, and the 3-D printed gun are considered pivotal pieces of physical evidence. The outcome of this hearing will be a critical determinant of the trial's trajectory, scheduled to proceed in a New York state court.
