Luigi Mangione is due in court as judge weighs legality of police seizing his backpack

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NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is set to return to court on Friday as a judge weighs whether to allow or exclude certain evidence from his federal death penalty case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett wants to hear testimony about procedures that police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, said allowed them to seize and look through Mangione’s backpack when they arrested him on Dec. 9, 2024, five days after Thompson’s death in Manhattan.

Garnett said the hearing will be limited to just one witness: an officer from the Altoona police department. The city is about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

That officer called to testify must have “sufficient authority and experience to testify about the established or standardized procedures in use” at the time of Mangione’s arrest “for securing, safeguarding, and, if applicable, inventorying the personal property of a person arrested in a public place,” the judge said.

Because the hearing will focus on procedures, the officer being called as a witness “need not have had any personal involvement” in Mangione’s arrest, Garnett said.

Mangione is also scheduled to be in court again in the federal case on Jan. 30 for a status conference. Garnett has said jury selection in his trial could begin as early as September.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges, which carry the possibility of life in prison.

Mangione’s lawyers want Garnett to bar prosecutors from using certain items found in the backpack, including a gun police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which Mangione purportedly described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.

Echoing their arguments at a recent state court hearing, they contend the search was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant. The judge in the state case said he’ll rule on evidence issues in May.

Thompson was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind.

Officers began searching the backpack at the McDonald’s restaurant where Mangione was arrested while eating breakfast.

Prosecutors say officers searched the bag legally because Altoona police protocols require promptly searching a suspect’s property at the time of arrest for dangerous items and police later obtained a warrant.

Among the items found at the McDonald’s, according to officer testimony at a recent court hearing, was a loaded gun magazine.

Officers continued searching the bag at a police station and found the gun and silencer. They performed what’s known as an inventory search and found the notebook and other notes, including what appeared to be to-do lists and possible getaway plans, according to testimony.

That search, which involves cataloging every piece of a suspect’s seized property, is also required under Altoona police policy, prosecutors said. Laws concerning how police obtain search warrants are complex and often disputed in criminal cases.

As part of her inquiry, Garnett ordered federal prosecutors to provide her with a copy of the affidavit submitted to obtain a federal search warrant in the matter.

Mangione’s lawyers contend that searching the backpack before getting a warrant may have influenced how the affidavit was written, but prosecutors say no specific details about items, such as the notebook writings, were mentioned in the document.