Dec. 1 (UPI) — Lawyers for Luigi Mangione are seeking Monday to have evidence gathered during his arrest thrown out in his trial for the alleged murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The 27-year-old is expected to appear in New York state court for the beginning of his pretrial on nine counts of murder and weapons charges. He pleaded not guilty to all charges, including four separate federal charges that could result in the death penalty.
Mangione is accused of fatally shooting Thompson, 50, on Dec. 4 on a Manhattan sidewalk as the latter was on his way to a UnitedHealthcare shareholder’s meeting. Police arrested Mangione days later as he was at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
During his arrest, police gathered evidence from a backpack Mangione was wearing. Defense lawyers were expected to argue Monday that authorities illegally searched his bags without a warrant, and, therefore, the evidence is not admissible in trial, CNN reported.
NBC News reported that pretrial proceedings will be split into two parts. The first, the Mapp hearing, will deal with evidence gathered during Mangione’s arrest.
The contents of the backpack included a notebook that defense lawyer Karen Agnifolo said could “irreparably prejudice Mr. Mangione at his multiple upcoming trials. Lawyers also seek to prevent witnesses from giving testimony about Mangione’s writings in the notebook.
The writings allegedly contained a three-page document in which Mangione decried the state of the U.S. healthcare industry, writing, “these parasites simply had it coming.”
In the second, the Huntley hearing, Judge Gregory Carro will rule on whether Mangione was coerced when he gave statements to law enforcement.
