Jurors at Luigi Mangione’s murder trial will get to see the 3D-printed pistol and alleged “manifesto” found inside his backpack, a judge ruled Monday — handing prosecutors a key legal win.
Altoona, Pa. cops followed legal protocol when searching the accused assassin’s bag at the police station after nabbing him for the December 2024 execution of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro found.
Monday’s decision means that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will get to reveal at trial the alleged murder weapon — a 9-millimeter handgun— discovered inside the 28-year-old’s bag after he was arrested at an Altoona McDonald’s after a dramatic five-day manhunt.
Prosecutors will also be able to show Mangione’s journal, in which the University of Pennsylvania grad mused about killing the “greedy” CEO to denounce an industry that “extracts human life force for money.”
Yet the judge separately blocked other key evidence — including the gun’s magazine and Mangione’s wallet and passport — that police obtained at the Altoona eatery before getting a warrant from being shown to jurors.
Judge Carro delivered the high-stakes ruling as Mangione faces a September 8 trial on charges that carry a maximum sentence of 25 years-to-life behind bars. The scion of a wealthy Maryland family is separately charged in a federal case, also in Manhattan, in connection to Thompson’s death.
He has pleaded not guilty in both cases and is being held without bail at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center alongside other high-profile inmates like ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro.
