Luigi Mangione will return to federal court for jury selection beginning Sept. 8 in the federal murder case tied to the Dec. 4, 2024, killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan, a judge said Friday as she laid out the immediate path for the trial.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett set the starting date after Mangione was brought back to court for a hearing on the legal handling of items taken from a backpack during his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 9, 2024. Garnett said she was weighing several issues, including whether prosecutors can pursue the death penalty, and said the broader trial timeline would turn on that decision.
Garnett said that if the death penalty remains on the table, the next phase of the federal case would begin Jan. 11, 2027. She added that if the case is no longer a capital prosecution, opening statements would occur Oct. 13, a shorter preparation schedule she said reflects the added complexity of capital cases.
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty in federal court as well as to state murder charges that prosecutors have filed elsewhere. The state case had not been scheduled as of Friday, according to the court proceedings described in the hearing.
At Friday’s hearing, Garnett limited the session to the backpack evidence, calling Altoona Police Department Deputy Chief Nathan Snyder as the only witness. Prosecutors and defense both questioned Snyder for roughly 90 minutes, and Garnett asked questions as well, in part because she said she wanted to hear from a police official about “the established or standardized procedures” in place at the time of Mangione’s arrest for securing, safeguarding, and, if applicable, inventorying a suspect’s personal property in a public place.
Prosecutors said Snyder, who was promoted to the deputy chief post three weeks earlier, was not involved in Mangione’s arrest and had no role in the Altoona police investigation. They also said he had not had substantive conversations with officers who participated in the arrest about what happened that day, as Garnett considered what procedures were followed.
Mangione’s lawyers pressed arguments raised previously in state court that the search of the backpack should be barred because police searched it before obtaining a warrant. They sought to prevent prosecutors from using items they said were found in the backpack, including a gun police said matched the weapon used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which Mangione purportedly wrote about his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.
Separately, Garnett said she was considering a defense request to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, and Mangione’s lawyers argued that the charges enabling capital punishment are technically flawed. They also contended the government prejudiced Mangione by publicly announcing its intent before obtaining an indictment, an argument Garnett was weighing alongside the evidence dispute.
As the judge began the hearing, Garnett warned that she would not allow the backpack proceeding to become “some extension of the state hearing by proxy,” indicating she was focused on the federal evidence questions before her. Garnett later said she found the hearing “very helpful,” but she issued no rulings during the session.
Garnett ordered federal prosecutors to provide her with a copy of an affidavit submitted to obtain a federal search warrant in the case. Mangione’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, questioned Snyder about a police department general order effective Feb. 1, 2016, governing arrest, search, and seizure procedures. Defense lawyers said searching the backpack before a warrant may have influenced how the affidavit was written, while prosecutors said no specific details about certain items—such as the contents of the notebook writings—were mentioned in the document.
The court proceedings described how police began searching the backpack at the McDonald’s restaurant where Mangione was arrested while eating breakfast. Prosecutors said Altoona police protocols required promptly searching a suspect’s property at the time of arrest for dangerous items and that police later obtained a warrant. They said officers found a loaded gun magazine, and then continued searching at a police station, where they found the gun and a silencer and performed what they described as an inventory search, cataloging the notebook, notes, and materials including what appeared to be to-do lists and possible getaway plans.
Mangione wore a tan jail suit at Friday’s hearing and was in federal custody with shackles on his feet, and he appeared with facial hair that differed from his usual clean-shaven look. He is scheduled to be back in federal court again on Jan. 30 for a status conference.