Australia news LIVE: E-bike reform signalled after rider killed in Sydney; Luigi Mangione returns to court
Luigi Mangione showed no emotion in court as prosecutors played surveillance videos showing the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk last year and Mangione’s arrest five days later at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
The videos, including footage from the restaurant previously unseen by the press or the public, kicked off the hearing in Mangione’s fight to bar evidence from his state murder trial, including the gun prosecutors say matches the one used in the December 4, 2024, attack. Thompson was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
Luigi Mangione, centre, appears in court for an evidence hearing in New York overnight.Credit: AP
Mangione, 27, pressed a finger to his lips and a thumb to his chin as he watched footage of two police officers approaching him as he ate breakfast at the McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 370 kilometres west of Manhattan.
He gripped a pen in his right hand, making a fist at times, as prosecutors played a 911 call from a McDonald’s manager relaying concerns from customers that Mangione looked like the suspect in Thompson’s killing.
Among the evidence Mangione’s defence team wants excluded are the 9mm handgun and a notebook – the so-called manifesto – in which prosecutors say he described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive. Both were found in a backpack Mangione had with him when he was arrested.
Mangione’s lawyers contend that the Manhattan district attorney’s office should be prevented from showing the gun, notebook and other items to jurors because police didn’t have a search warrant.
Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Neither trial has been scheduled yet. The next hearing in the federal case is scheduled for January 9.
AP
