Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was scheduled to appear in federal court in New York City on Wednesday, but his court date was postponed to next month.
Mangione’s legal team has argued that Mangione’s rights were violated when he was arrested because they say he wasn’t read his Miranda rights and that authorities collected his DNA illegally by offering him a snack and drink before he was arrested. His next federal court appearance is scheduled for April 18.
The accused assassin was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after Thompson was shot in the back in New York City on his way to an investor conference on Dec. 4.
Authorities found on Mangione a backpack, which contained a gun that matched the murder weapon and a notebook that “contained several handwritten pages that express hostility toward the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular,” according to the federal complaint. Mangione was extradited to New York, and he is currently in federal custody in Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn. He is charged with both state and federal charges and, with the latter, faces the death penalty. He has pleaded not guilty.
Mangione’s defense team is now arguing that authorities were unlawful in their arrest of Mangione at the McDonald’s, saying they had no corroborating evidence.
“Prior to the stop, arrest, seizure and investigatory detention of (Mangione), APD officers had no objective grounds for said detention, other than a hunch or unparticularized suspicion,” defense attorney Thomas Dickey said in his motion seeking to suppress Mangione’s state charges. “APD lacked reasonable suspicion for any stop, arrest, seizure and investigatory detention.”
Dickey also said Mangione’s red notebook being described as a manifesto is unjustified.
“The use of this characterization of the defendant’s alleged personal experiences and writings is incorrect, improper and without justification and has no probative value,” Dickey argued in the latest filing. “Defendant believes that this characterization was done so solely for the purpose to prejudice the defendant and put him in a negative light before the public, all in an effort to prejudice any potential jury pool.”
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Meanwhile, Karen Agnifilo, another defense attorney of Mangione, shared in a February court appearance that she was missing the bulk of evidence that the prosecution is using against her client.
The judge set an April 9 deadline for the defense to submit pretrial motions, giving prosecutors until May 14 to respond. The judge is set to rule on the motions on June 26.
