Hearing in Luigi Mangione’s state murder case sheds new light on his arrest
NEW YORK AP Minutes after police approached Luigi Mangione in a Pennsylvania McDonald s he notified 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 selected video and accounts of police interactions with Mangione emerged earlier in this week s hearing Thursday s proceedings shed new light on the lead-up to and aftermath of his Dec arrest in Altoona Pennsylvania Mangione s lawyers are trying to preclude key evidence from being presented at his state murder trial including his initial statements to police and a gun and diary they say they revealed in his backpack On the hearing s fourth day the -year-old Mangione appeared to follow the 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 urged about a strip-search of Mangione after his arrest Under the department s framework that search wasn t recorded It happened after police were described that someone at the McDonald s resembled the much-publicized suspect in Thompson s killing But Frye and Officer Joseph Detwiler initially approached Mangione with a low-key tone saying only that someone had disclosed he looked suspicious Questioned for his ID he gave a phony New Jersey driver s license with a fake name according to prosecutors I don t know what you guys are up to Moments later after frisking Mangione Detwiler stepped away to communicate with dispatchers about the license leaving the rookie Frye by Mangione s table to talk to him Frye petitioned him What s going on and what had brought him to Altoona I don t know what you guys are up to Mangione answered and he inquired what was afoot After repeating the claim that someone was suspicious of Mangione Frye questioned You don t want to talk to me or anything Mangione indicated that he didn t Still during the roughly minutes before Mangione was reported he had the right to remain silent he answered other questions required by the officers and also posed a sparse of his own Can I ask why there s so countless cops here he requested shortly before being informed he was being arrested on a forgery charge related to his false ID By that point roughly a dozen officers had converged on the restaurant and Mangione had been informed he was being investigated and had been handcuffed What s at stake Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges Before any trials get scheduled his lawyers are trying to prevent the eventual jurors from hearing about his alleged statements to law officers and items including a gun and a notebook they allegedly seized from his backpack The evidence is key to prosecutors circumstance They have declared the mm handgun matches the firearm used in the killing that writings in the notebook laid out Mangione s disdain for wellbeing 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 Hearing coincides with anniversary Thursday s proceedings came on the anniversary of the killing which UnitedHealthcare marked by lowering the flags at its campuses in Minnetonka and Eden Prairie Minnesota and encouraging employees to engage in volunteering Thompson was shot from behind as he walked to an investor conference He became UnitedHealthcare s CEO in and had worked within parent UnitedHealth Group Inc for years The hearing which started Monday and could extend to next week applies only to the state circumstance But it is giving the constituents an extensive preview of particular testimony video audio and other records relevant to both cases After encountering Mangione Detwiler and Frye tried to play it cool by intimating that they were solely responding to a loitering complaint and chatting about his steak sandwich Still they patted Mangione down pushed his backpack away from him and summoned more officers About minutes in an officer warned him that he was being investigated and would be arrested if he repeated what they had determined was a fake name After Mangione gave his real one he was read his rights handcuffed frisked again and ultimately arrested on a forgery charge related to his fake ID Mangione s lawyers argue that his statements shouldn t be allowed as trial evidence because officers started questioning him before reading his rights They say the contents of his backpack should be excluded because police didn t get a warrant before searching it 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 Countless criminal cases see disputes over evidence and the complicated legal standards governing police searches and interactions with anticipated accused Source
