Judge Gregory Carro ruled Monday that prosecutors may show jurors a gun and notebook they say connect Luigi Mangione to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, even as Carro rejected a defense argument that officers seized the items through an illegal search. The decision, issued after Carro held an earlier hearing on how police came upon the evidence, marked what prosecutors said was a major win while narrowing other parts of the case for the state trial.
Carro ruled that a gun and notebook can be used as evidence at Mangione’s state murder trial. The judge rejected the defense’s argument that the items were seized illegally when officers searched Mangione’s backpack during their initial response near a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Carro said the evidence can be presented to jurors as a possible murder weapon and as support for prosecutors’ theory of motive.
At the same time, Carro excluded items officers took from the backpack before police obtained a warrant hours later. According to the ruling summarized in court reporting, Carro said the loaded gun magazine and other items—including a cellphone, passport, wallet, and computer chip—were the result of what he described as an “improper warrantless search” under New York law.
Carro also excluded some statements Mangione made to police before he was handcuffed, as he summarized the evidence and the legal questions during the decision. Reporting on the case said Mangione did not speak when Carro summarized the ruling, while about two dozen supporters gathered in the courtroom gallery, including some wearing “Free Luigi” T-shirts.
Prosecutors are still expected to be able to use evidence tied to what officers found after they inventoried the backpack contents at a police station. Carro said that inventory searches are an exception to constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, and allowed items found in that later process, including a 3D-printed pistol prosecutors say matches the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook prosecutors say included references to wanting to “wack” a health insurance executive.
The case centers on Thompson’s killing outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024. Mangione was arrested Dec. 9, 2024, five days after Thompson was killed, and Altoona is about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. Mangione has pleaded not guilty in both the state and federal proceedings, and could face life in prison if convicted in either case.
Both sides sought partial victories in Carro’s ruling. Defense attorneys argued that officers’ initial search was illegal because they looked through the backpack without a warrant when Mangione was not yet under arrest. Prosecutors argued the initial search at the McDonald’s was legal because it occurred in connection with an arrest and because officers followed protocols requiring a check for dangerous items, but Carro concluded that New York law applied and that the justification for an immediate safety search had been undermined once police moved the backpack outside Mangione’s “grabbable area” as other customers passed nearby.
A body-worn camera account described officers pausing the search after finding the gun magazine wrapped in underwear, with one officer telling a colleague to pause and take the items back. Reporting said Carro viewed the subsequent inventory search as fitting within the constitutional exception, and emphasized that evidence logged later—such as items described as to-do lists and getaway plans—was admissible as part of that later process.
Carro’s decision also addressed the legal status of statements Mangione made earlier in the encounter. The reporting said Mangione told police he did not want to talk, but officers engaged him for nearly 20 minutes before he admitted giving them a fake name and a phony New Jersey driver’s license. Court testimony cited in the reporting said an NYPD lieutenant described how the shooter had used the same name—Mark Rosario—to buy a bus ticket to New York and stay at a Manhattan hostel.
Mangione’s state trial is set to begin Sept. 8, according to the reporting, while his federal trial—described in the case as involving stalking charges—is set for Oct. 13. Prosecutors have previously quoted extensively from materials they describe as a handwritten diary in court filings, including passages that prosecutors say reflect ideas connected to Thompson’s killing.
In court, surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind on Dec. 4, 2024, as the executive walked to his company’s annual investor conference. Police say words such as “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mirroring a phrase used in connection with how insurers avoid paying claims.