NEW YORK — Minutes after police approached Luigi Mangione in a Pennsylvania McDonald's, he told an officer he didn't want to talk, according to video and testimony at a court hearing Thursday for the man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Although Mangione signaled he wasn't interested in speaking, police continued asking questions, and he continued answering, video showed. Nearly 20 minutes passed before police informed him of his right to remain silent.
The exchanges have been scrutinized this week at a lengthy New York court hearing as Mangione's lawyers try to keep some key evidence from being presented at his murder trial, including his statements to police and a gun and diary officers say they found in his backpack when he was arrested Dec. 9, 2024, in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Mangione's lawyers argue that his statements aren't fair game for trial because officers asked questions before reading his rights. The defense says the contents of his backpack should be excluded because police didn't get a warrant before searching it.
The standards surrounding police questioning and searches are complicated and often argued over once cases get to court. However the issues are ultimately resolved in Mangione's case, the hearing is giving the public an extensive preview of some testimony, video, 911 audio and other records.
Hearing coincides with anniversary
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The hearing, which started Monday and could extend to next week, applies only to the state case.
As Mangione sat in a Manhattan court on Thursday's anniversary of the killing, UnitedHealthcare lowered the flags at its campuses in Minnetonka and Eden Prairie, Minnesota, in Thompson's memory. Employees were encouraged to engage in volunteering.
The 27-year-old Mangione, meanwhile, appeared to follow the court proceedings intently, at times leaning over the defense table to scrutinize papers or take notes. He briefly looked down as Altoona Police Officer Tyler Frye was asked about a strip-search of Mangione after his arrest. Under the department's policy, that search wasn't recorded.
'I don't know what you guys are up to'
Five days after Thompson was gunned down, Altoona police were tipped that someone at the McDonald's resembled the much-publicized suspect in the killing. But Frye and Officer Joseph Detwiler initially approached Mangione with a low-key tone, saying only that someone had said he looked "suspicious." Asked for his ID, he gave a phony New Jersey driver's license with a fake name, according to prosecutors.
Moments later, after frisking Mangione, Detwiler stepped away to communicate with dispatchers about the license, leaving the rookie Frye by Mangione's table. Frye asked him, "What's going on?" and what had brought him to Altoona.
"I don't know what you guys are up to. I'm just going to wait," Mangione answered, and he inquired what was afoot.
After repeating the claim that someone was suspicious of Mangione, Frye asked: "You don't want to talk to me or anything?"
Mangione indicated that he didn't, shaking his head. But he continued to answer other questions asked by the officers, and also posed a few of his own.
"Can I ask why there's so many cops here?" he asked shortly before being informed he was being arrested on a forgery charge related to his false ID. Roughly a dozen officers had converged on the restaurant, and Mangione had been told he was being investigated and had been handcuffed and read his rights.
When he was arrested, an officer asked whether there was anything in the backpack that police needed to know about.
"I'm going to remain silent," Mangione replied.
Police went on to search the bag. They also searched Mangione's pockets, finding objects including a pocket knife — which he alerted them to — and what appeared to be a neatly written to-do list. Entries for the previous day ranged from "digital cam" to "hot meal and water bottles" to "trash bag(s)."
Among the items for the day of his arrest: "survival kit."
What's at stake?
The evidence is key to prosecutors' case. They have said the 9 mm handgun found in the backpack matches the firearm used in the killing, that writings in the notebook laid out Mangione's disdain for health insurers and ideas about killing a CEO at an investor conference, and that he gave police the same fake name that the alleged gunman used at a New York hostel days before the shooting.
Thompson, 50, was shot from behind as he walked to an investor conference. He became UnitedHealthcare's CEO in 2021 and had worked within parent UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years.
Manhattan prosecutors haven't yet detailed their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Federal prosecutors have maintained that the backpack search was justified to ensure there was nothing dangerous inside, and that Mangione's statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.
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