The magazine and bullets are out, but the gun remains in.
That was the takeaway from Luigi Mangione’s New York Supreme Court hearing on Monday (May 18). Judge Gregory Carro issued a mixed decision on whether items found in a backpack the alleged killer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson had on him at the time of his December 9, 2024 arrest at a McDonald’s Altoona, PA, as well as statements he made during the arrest and in the days afterwards, will be allowed as evidence in his upcoming trial.
The circumstances of Mangione’s arrest and related searches had been the subject of extensive hearings in December of last year. Mangione was arrested in Altoona following a five-day national manhunt. That search followed Thompson being shot and killed in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024.
On Monday, Carro issued his decision regarding those 2025 hearings, and summarized that decision for Mangione, his lawyers, prosecutors, and a courtroom full of press and supporters.
Mangione, dressed in a blue suit and a blue-and-white dress shirt, appeared affectless while Carro summarized his decision, in which the 28-year-old’s request to have the contents of the backpack, as well as his statements, thrown out was granted in part and denied in part.
Carro ruled that a search of the backpack that happened at the McDonald’s was improper and warrantless, and thus that items found then would be disallowed. However, a separate search of the backpack that took place at the Altoona police station was legal, he ruled, and items found then could be used.
The items found at the time of the McDonald’s search included a wallet, a Faraday bag, a cellphone, a computer data chip, and a passport. In addition, and most notably, there was a handgun magazine loaded with bullets. Those items will not be allowed at trial.
The search at the station uncovered a handgun, a silencer, a USB drive and a red notebook. All of that will be allowed, including photographs of the contents of the notebook.
Statements Mangione made between when officers first arrived at 9:29 a.m. and when he was Mirandized at around 9:48 a.m. will be suppressed if they dealt with any topic outside of his name, address, and date of birth. This means that his answers to questions about if he had a fake ID and why he was lying about his name cannot be used at trial. [He had initially given officers the name “Mark Rosario,” and had a driver’s license with that name.]
Statements Mangione made afterwards — including that he allegedly heard he was being compared to “Unabomber” Ted Kaczinsky — will be allowed.
Mangione faces New York state murder and weapons possessions charges (terrorism charges were thrown out last September) for allegedly killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City in December, 2024. He also faces separate federal charges.
Mangione’s arguments during the December 2025 hearing centered around the ways in which Altoona police handled his arrest and search. One major argument for excluding the backpack was that the arresting officers had not obtained a search warrant for it, and the conditions to allow a warrantless search were not met.
As for his statements during the arrest, his attorneys argued that some of them were made before he was read his Miranda rights, while others were made after he said he wished to remain silent.
Also at issue were statements allegedly made to corrections officers days later while Mangione was at a state prison in Pennsylvania. Mangione’s lawyers argued that those conversations shouldn’t have happened without counsel present, since they “related to the New York shooting.”
Mangione’s state case, of which Monday’s hearing was a part, is set to begin trial on September 8.
The next hearing in the case, to deal with jury selection issues, will be a virtual one. It will take place on June 3.
