Accused assassin Luigi Mangione has appeared in Manhattan court looking preppy — with his trademark bushy brows carefully manicured as he smirked and furiously scribbled notes — for a key pre-trial evidence hearing in his murder case.
The 27-year-old former Ivy League scholar, dressed in a grey suit jacket over a Tattersall white and red checkered collared shirt and grey pants, was led into the room through a side door for Monday’s hearing before taking a seat at the defence table for the start of the proceeding.
Dozens of fans — who say they consider him akin to a national hero for trying to take on the broken US healthcare system, even though he allegedly killed the head of a major company in the process — flocked to the courthouse in support of him. Some were dressed as the Luigi character from Super Mario.
The clean-cut Mangione, the scion of a wealthy Maryland family, appeared to have had his thick brows waxed for the occasion.
He broadly grinned his way through parts of the proceeding, looked quizzical at other times and rested his head in his left hand as surveillance footage showed his sensational arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors are expected to call more than two dozen witnesses involved in his arrest in December 2024 on charges of executing the head of healthcare giant UnitedHealthcare on the side of a street in New York’s Midtown.
The hearing will probe whether police breached Mangione’s rights by questioning him and searching his backpack before getting a warrant.
If Judge Gregory Carro sides with the defence, he could deal Manhattan prosecutors a “devastating” blow by barring them from showing jurors the key evidence cops found inside the backpack, including the alleged murder weapon and a notebook in which Mangione reportedly explained his motive.
The prosecution’s first witness on Monday, local time, was Chris McLaughlin, a sergeant in the NYPD’s public-information office, who helped set the stage for the hearing by reviewing widely released images of the suspect released to the public during the manhunt for him.
The images, including the infamous photos of a man authorities say was Mangione slipping down his Covid-19 mask to flash a flirty grin at a Manhattan hostel worker, were displayed on four large screens in the courtroom.
Mangione scrawled down notes as some of the photos were displayed.
There also was footage played of the suspect ordering breakfast at the McDonald’s as he was being hunted, and it showed him using a napkin to brush off his table at one point before police descended on him.
The accused killer plotted to “rebel against the deadly, greed fuelled health insurance cartel” by targeting Thompson, the head of “a company that literally extracts human life force for money,” according to excerpts of diary entries cited in court papers.
Mangione faces separate federal charges in a case where prosecutors have taken the rare step of asking for the death penalty.
The accused killer is being allowed to shed his drab inmate scrubs and instead wear his choice of outfit from a selection of two suits, three shirts and three sweaters, court records show.
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission
