Luigi Mangione watches footage of cops approaching him at Altoona McDonald’s as courtroom hearings commence

The videos, including footage from the restaurant never before seen by the press or public, kicked off a hearing on Mangione’s fight to block evidence from the state murder trial, including weapons that prosecutors say match those used in the Dec. 4, 2024, attack. Thompson was killed while heading to a Manhattan hotel to attend his company’s annual investor conference.

Mangione, 27, pressed his finger to his lips and his thumb to his chin as he watched footage of two police officers approaching him while he was eating breakfast at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

He held a pen in his right hand, making occasional fist pumps, as prosecutors listened to a 911 call from a McDonald’s manager relaying customers’ concerns that Mangione resembled the suspect in Thompson’s murder. The manager said she searched online for photos of the suspect, and when Mangione was sitting in the restaurant, she could only see his eyebrows because he was wearing a beanie and a surgical face mask.

Among the evidence Mangione’s defense team wants to exclude is a 9 mm handgun and a notebook in which prosecutors say he described his intention to “bother” a health insurance executive. Both were found in the backpack Mangione had with him when he was arrested.

Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life imprisonment, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. No date has yet been set for either trial. The next hearing in the federal case is scheduled for January 9.

The defense wants to keep the gun and notebook from his trial

After state terrorism charges were dropped in September, Mangione’s lawyers are focusing on what they say is unconstitutional police conduct that threatens his right to a fair trial.

They contend that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office should be prohibited from showing the gun, notebook and other items to jurors because the police did not have a search warrant.

They also want to suppress some of Mangione’s statements to police, such as when he allegedly gave his name as Mark Rosario, because officers began asking questions before telling him he had the right to remain silent. Prosecutors say Mangione gave the same name when he checked into a Manhattan motel days before the killing.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson in the back. Prosecutors say the words “delay,” “refusal” and “deposit” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurance companies avoid paying claims.

Getting rid of the gun and notebook would be a decisive victory for Mangione’s defense and a major setback for prosecutors, depriving them of the potential murder weapon and evidence they say points to a motive. Prosecutors have quoted extensively from Mangione’s writings in court filings, including his praise of the late Theodore Kaczynski, the convicted killer known as the “Unabomber.”

Among other things, prosecutors say, Mangione mused in his memoir about rebelling against the “murderous and greedy health insurance cartel” and wrote that killing an industry executive “smacks of a greedy scoundrel who had come.”

An officer who was searching the backpack found on Mangione was heard on body camera footage saying she was checking to make sure there was no “bomb” in the bag. His lawyers say it was a pretext “designed to cover up an illegal warrantless search of his backpack.”

Laws regarding how police interact with potential suspects before reading them their rights or obtaining search warrants are complex and often disputed in criminal cases.

Federal prosecutors, who are fighting similar defense efforts in this case, said in court filings that police were justified in searching the backpack to ensure there were no dangerous items, and that his statements to officers were voluntary and made before his arrest.

A pivotal pretrial hearing can last more than a week

Court officials say the hearing could last more than a week, meaning it would extend until the anniversary of the murder, which falls on Thursday. Defense attorney Mark Agnifilo told the judge in an unrelated matter last week that Manhattan prosecutors had indicated they could call more than two dozen witnesses.

Mangione was allowed to wear regular clothes to court instead of his prison uniform. He entered the courtroom on Monday in a gray suit and a button-down shirt with a checkered or torn pattern. Court staff removed his handcuffs to allow him to take notes.

The prosecution’s first witness, Sgt. Chris McLaughlin of the New York Police Department’s Public Affairs Bureau testified about efforts to disseminate surveillance images of the suspect to the media and on social media in the hours and days following the shooting.

To illustrate the breadth of news coverage during the five-day search for the shooter, prosecutors played surveillance video of the shooting that aired on Fox News Digital, footage from a network of police divers searching a pond in Central Park, and clips from the network that included photos of the suspected shooter that were distributed by police.

Bernard Bayles, an installation supervisor who helped maintain the McDonald’s surveillance camera system, also testified Monday. He downloaded police videos after Mangione’s arrest.

A few dozen Mangione supporters watched the hearing from the back of the courtroom. One wore a green T-shirt that said: “Without a search warrant, it’s not a search, it’s a violation.” Another woman was carrying a doll of the video game character Luigi and had a figurine of him clipped to her bag.