A 911 name a couple of man resembling “the CEO shooter.” Physique-camera footage of police arresting Luigi Mangione and pulling objects from his backpack, together with a gun that prosecutors say matches the one used to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and a pocket book they’ve described as a “manifesto.” Notes a couple of “survival equipment” and “intel checkin,” and testimony about his statements behind bars.
A 3-week pretrial listening to on Mangione’s struggle to exclude proof from his New York homicide case revealed new particulars about his December 2024 arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania, steps prosecutors say he took to elude authorities for 5 days, and what he might have revealed about himself after he was taken into custody.
The listening to ended Thursday. Mangione watched from the protection desk as prosecutors known as 17 witnesses, a lot of them law enforcement officials and different personnel concerned in his arrest. Mangione’s attorneys known as none. Decide Gregory Carro stated he received’t rule till Might 18, “however that would change.”
Mangione, 27, an Ivy League graduate from a rich Maryland household, has pleaded not responsible to state and federal homicide fees. The pretrial listening to was within the state case, the place he faces the potential for life in jail, however his attorneys are attempting to exclude proof from each instances. Federal prosecutors are looking for the loss of life penalty. He’s due again in court docket for a listening to in that case on Jan. 9. Neither trial has been scheduled.
Listed below are among the issues we realized from Mangione’s pretrial listening to:
Physique cameras give a close-up have a look at Mangione’s arrest
The general public obtained an in depth, even exhaustive view of how police in Altoona, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan, performed Mangione’s arrest and searched his backpack after he was noticed consuming breakfast at McDonald’s.
Whereas there have been quirky moments and asides — about vacation music, a hoagie and extra — the purpose of the listening to was to assist the choose assess whether or not Mangione voluntarily spoke to police and whether or not the officers had been justified in looking his property earlier than getting a warrant.
For the primary time, body-worn digital camera video of Mangione‘s arrest was performed in court docket and excerpts from one had been made public. Beforehand, solely nonetheless photos had been launched. Taken from a number of officers’ cameras, the footage put ears and eyes on the essential moments surrounding his arrest, together with an incongruously cheerful soundtrack: “Jingle Bell Rock” and different Christmas tunes on the restaurant’s sound system.
Officers on the witness stand had been quizzed about what they stated and did as Mangione went from noshing on a hash brown to being led away in handcuffs, in addition to what they perceived, the place they had been standing and the way they dealt with proof after bringing him to a police station.
Mangione’s attorneys argue that not one of the outcomes of the search nor statements he made to police ought to be talked about at his trial, which has but to be scheduled. Prosecutors disagree. Carro didn’t trace at his conclusion. He invited either side to submit written arguments and stated he deliberate to review the body-camera video earlier than issuing a written determination.
Differing views of Mangione’s statements and bag search
Mangione’s attorneys famous that one officer stated “we’ll most likely want a search warrant” for the backpack, however his colleagues had already rifled by it and later searched the bag once more earlier than getting a warrant.
Prosecutors emphasised an Altoona police coverage, which they stated is rooted in Pennsylvania regulation, that requires looking the property of anybody who’s being arrested. The 2 sides additionally amplified some contrasting indicators, in officers’ phrases and actions, about their stage of concern about whether or not the backpack contained one thing harmful that would justify a warrantless search.
The officer looking the bag, Christy Wasser, testified that she was checking for a bomb. However Mangione’s attorneys identified that police didn’t clear the restaurant of consumers — some had been seen on body-camera footage strolling to a rest room a couple of toes away — and that she stopped her preliminary search virtually instantly after discovering a loaded gun journal wrapped in a pair of underwear.
The discover appeared to verify officers’ suspicions that Mangione was the person needed for Thompson’s killing.
“It’s him, dude. It’s him, 100%,” officer Stephen Fox was heard saying on body-worn digital camera video, punctuating the comment with expletives as Wasser held up the journal.
Mangione gave police a pretend title and a motive to arrest him
Mangione’s statements to police previous to his arrest matter primarily as a result of, as proven on body-worn digital camera video, he initially gave officers a pretend title — Mark Rosario — and a phony New Jersey driver’s license bearing that title. He finally acknowledged the ruse and gave his actual title after police ran the ID by a pc system and couldn’t get a match.
The pretend title promptly gave Altoona police a motive to arrest him and maintain him for New York Metropolis police. “If he had supplied us along with his precise title, he wouldn’t have dedicated a criminal offense,” Fox testified. An NYPD lieutenant testified that the Rosario title matched one the suspected shooter used to buy a bus ticket to New York and gave at a Manhattan hostel.
Mangione informed police early on he didn’t need to speak, however officers engaged him for nearly 20 minutes earlier than a supervisor urged Fox to tell him of his proper to stay silent. It occurred after Mangione had admitted to mendacity about his title and stated he “clearly shouldn’t have.”
An essential think about whether or not suspects have to learn of their proper to remain silent — often called a Miranda warning — is whether or not they’re in police custody.
Prosecutors elicited testimony from officers suggesting Mangione may have believed he was free to depart when he gave the false title. However one of many first officers to come across Mangione testified that he “was not free to depart till I recognized who he was” — although Mangione wasn’t informed that, and physique digital camera video confirmed a number of officers standing between him and the restaurant door.
911 caller: Prospects involved ‘he seems just like the CEO shooter’
For the primary time, the general public heard the 911 name that drew police to the Altoona McDonald’s, finally resulting in Mangione’s arrest.
The restaurant’s supervisor informed a dispatcher: “I’ve a buyer right here that another prospects had been suspicious of that he seems just like the CEO shooter from New York. They’re simply actually upset and so they’re like coming to me and I used to be like, ‘Nicely, I can’t method them, you understand.’ ”
The lady, whose title was edited out of the recording performed in court docket and omitted from the model launched to the general public, stated she first tried calling a non-emergency quantity, however nobody answered. Then she known as 911.
“It’s probably not an emergency,” she informed the dispatcher firstly of the decision.
The supervisor stated Mangione was sporting a medical masks and a beanie pulled down on his brow, leaving solely his eyes and eyebrows seen. She stated she searched on-line for a photograph of the suspect for comparability.
A hoagie reward and getting ‘the ball rolling’ with the NYPD
At first, Altoona law enforcement officials had been skeptical that Thompson’s killer could be of their metropolis, a group of about 44,000 folks about halfway between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.
Patrolman Joseph Detwiler, the primary officer to reach at McDonald’s, sarcastically responded “10-4” when a dispatcher requested him to test on the supervisor’s 911 name, a police supervisor testified.
The supervisor, Lt. Tom Hanelly Jr., testified that he texted Detwiler a reminder to take the decision critically and provided to purchase the officer his favourite hoagie — a big turkey from native sandwich store Luigetta’s — if he nabbed “the New York Metropolis shooter.”
Although, Hanelly acknowledged on the witness stand, “it appeared preposterous on its face.”
Hanelly stated he learn up on the capturing as he drove to McDonald’s and looked for a direct line “to get the ball rolling” with NYPD investigators. He ended up calling a New York Metropolis 911 name taker.
“We’re performing off a tip from a neighborhood enterprise right here, we’d have the shooter,” Hanelly stated in a recording performed in court docket.
The decision taker requested what shooter he was speaking about. Hanelly then clarified, “the UHC shooter” and stated he “matches the pictures that your division put out.”
Hanelly stated an NYPD detective known as him again about 45 minutes later.
Mangione in court docket: Pumping his fist and scribbling notes
Mangione stayed energetic all through the listening to, taking notes, studying paperwork, conferring along with his attorneys and sometimes trying again towards his two-dozen or so supporters within the courtroom gallery.
He watched intently as prosecutors performed a surveillance video of the killing and safety and body-worn digital camera footage of his interactions with Altoona police. He pressed a finger to his lips and a thumb to his chin as he watched footage of two law enforcement officials approaching him on the McDonald’s.
He gripped a pen in his proper hand, making a fist at instances, as prosecutors performed the 911 name.
Mangione arrived to court docket every morning from a federal jail in Brooklyn, the place he has been held since shortly after his arrest. He was given permission to put on common garments — a grey or darkish blue swimsuit and numerous button-down shirts — as an alternative of jail garb and had his arms uncuffed all through the proceedings.
Someday, he pumped his fist for photographers. One other day, he shooed away a photographer he felt had gotten too near him.
A backpack filled with ‘goodies,’ together with to-do lists and journey plans
Together with the gun and pocket book, law enforcement officials stated Mangione’s backpack was filled with meals, electronics and notes together with to-do lists, a hand-drawn map and ways for surviving on the lam — objects Altoona Police Sgt. Eric Heuston described as “goodies” that may hyperlink him to the killing.
‘Maintain momentum, FBI slower in a single day,’ stated one word. ‘Change hat, footwear, pluck eyebrows,’ stated one other.
One word stated to test for “pink eyes” from Pittsburgh to Columbus, Ohio or Cincinnati (“get off early,” it reads). The map confirmed traces linking these cities, and famous different doable locations, together with Detroit and St. Louis.
Different objects discovered on Mangione or in his bag included a pocketknife, driver’s license, passport, bank cards, AirPods, protein bar, journey toothpaste and flash drives.
Mangione talked behind bars, jail officers say
Earlier than he was moved to New York Metropolis, Mangione was held below shut watch in a particular housing unit at a Pennsylvania state jail, SCI Huntingdon, about 19 miles (31 kilometers) west of Altoona.
Correctional officer Matthew Henry testified that Mangione made an unprompted remark to him that he had a backpack with a 3D-printed pistol and overseas forex when he was arrested.
Correctional officer Tomas Rivers testified that Mangione requested him whether or not the information media was centered on him as an individual or on the crime of Thompson’s killing. He stated Mangione informed him he needed to make a public assertion.
Rivers stated Mangione was within the particular housing unit partially as a result of the ability’s superintendent had stated he “didn’t need an Epstein-style scenario,” referring to Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide at a Manhattan federal jail in 2019.
