NEW YORK – Luigi Mangione had at least a dozen handwritten notes on him when he was arrested last year for allegedly gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione sat in court on Tuesday during the eighth day of a pretrial hearing to determine whether crucial evidence can be used against him in his upcoming murder trial. The 27-year-old smiled at the cameras just before the hearing began.
More than a dozen witnesses — all officers involved in Mangione’s Pennsylvania arrest last year — have taken the stand.
Altoona Police Department Patrolman George Featherstone testified Tuesday that he was in charge of cataloging and processing the dozens of items Mangione had on his person when he was arrested at a McDonald’s on Dec. 4, 2024, just five days after Thompson was fatally shot on the streets of Manhattan.
Featherstone detailed the laborious task of separating, photographing, sealing and itemizing each item that was allegedly found on Mangione. That reportedly included a red notebook that police officer Christy Wasser previously called a “manifesto” in her testimony, along with more than a dozen handwritten notes.
It’s not yet clear what all the notes said, or if they were separate from pages that appeared torn out of the red notebook. At least one handwritten note shared by prosecutors last week said to “pluck eyebrows,” advice Mangione apparently didn’t follow: It was his bushy eyebrows that gave him away as the suspect in Thompson’s killing.
Other items police say they found in Mangione’s backpack and turned over as evidence include a 9mm untraceable ghost handgun with a 3D printed handle, a homemade silencer, hollow-point bullets, several USBs, a digital camera, $7,807 in U.S. currency, and another $1,620 in foreign currency. The backpack also contained a Faraday bag — which is used to block electronic signals from escaping — with a phone inside.
Mangione’s defense team has argued that the items in the backpack shouldn’t be included in the trial, because they say their client was illegally searched and not correctly read his Miranda rights.
Body camera video played in court last week showed the moment that officer Stephen Fox read Mangione his rights as “Jingle Bell Rock” played in the background of the McDonald’s.
Defense attorney Karen Agnifilo argued that Mangione’s rights were read too fast (“98 words in 15 seconds,” she told Fox) and that the officer left out the last question, which goes: “With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?”
The defense team has also taken issue with a lack of a search warrant, which the Altoona Police Department has argued wasn’t necessary. Featherstone, who has worked at the department for nearly five years, testified that any time an arrest is made that involves a backpack or bag, there is a search.
Prosecutor Zachary Kaplan asked how many of those searches involved a warrant.
“None that I recall,” Featherstone testified.
Mangione’s possessions were eventually turned over to the New York Police Department. Judge Gregory Carro will ultimately decide whether or not the evidence can be used at Mangione’s trial following the conclusion of the hearing, which is expected to continue this week.
Along with his state murder trial, Mangione also faces a federal murder trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.