Luigi Mangione, the 27 year-old Ivy-League graduate accused of gunning down the CEO of UntiedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was photographed making expressive hand gestures signaling court photographers to move away from the defense table on Tuesday, as his pretrial suppression hearings at Manhattan criminal court resumed.  

One of the pool photographers stepped too close to the defense table, as he attempted to take a picture and Mr. Mangione motioned to the photographer that he should step back. But the defendant – perhaps aware of his unlikely celebrity in certain circles – did not appear to be too concerned. Moments later he was seen laughing with his defense attorneys. 

There has been a strangely overwhelming outpour of support for the alleged killer, often associated with the disapproval of the mammoth health insurers, as the victim was the CEO of one of the largest health care providers in the country. According to Stats4Lulu, Mr. Mangione had received 6,242 “love letters” as of September 9, 2025, and his online fundraiser has raised $1,379,585 with 37,650 donors as of today. 

Stats4Lulu is a team of over 30 volunteer Mangione fans that, as stated on its website, “maintains an online, interactive dashboard on Luigi Mangione that shares information about not only the letters he has received but donations made to his GiveSendGo campaign to fund his legal cases, and top news articles relating to Luigi.” The website offers information in eight languages. 

Mr. Mangione appeared to be in a communicative mood on Tuesday morning, making gestures and facial expressions (including broad smiles) as the photographers snapped their photos. In one picture, he can be seen pressing his tongue against the inside of his cheek, and in another, he moves his hands together in a rather peculiar gesture, placing the fingertips of the left hand over the right hand, his thumbs sticking upwards. 

On December 8, Mr. Mangione held a clenched fist up to his chest for the photographers, symbolizing – perhaps – that he intends to fight the murder charges. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges related to the murder of Thompson, who was fatally shot on a Midtown Manhattan street in December of last year. 

Mr. Mangione faces charges in three separate jurisdictions for Thompson’s killing: At New York state court, at the Southern District of New York, where federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and at Pennsylvania state court regarding his fake drivers license and other charges . 

The Maryland-native, who comes from an influential real estate family from the Baltimore area, was his high school’s valedictorian and graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania, was arrested at a McDonald’s at a small town called Altoona, in central Pennsylvania, five days after Thompson was killed in New York.

Whether Altoona police officers followed proper police procedure during that arrest is the question at the on-going suppression hearings, which began on December 1 at Manhattan criminal court. 

Defense attorneys for Mr. Mangione argue that their client’s rights were violated during the arrest because Altoona police officers questioned him for about 20 minutes before reading him his Miranda warnings. Furthermore, they say, his backpack was searched without a warrant. The defense is seeking to exclude the evidence that was seized during the arrest, such as a 3-D printed handgun, found inside Mr. Mangione’s backpack, which, according to New York investigators, matches the shell casings of the bullets found at the crime scene, along with a red notebook with handwritten notes that criticize the health care industry that, according to prosecutors, provide the motive for the killing.

Prosecutors for the Manhattan District attorney’s office, who brought the state charges against Mr. Mangione, say that Altoona police officers followed all guidelines. Several officers testified that is common practice to search a person and their belongings without a warrant after he or she is arrested pursuant to “search incident to an arrest.”  

A legal analyst and former trial attorney, Terry Austin, told the Sun on December 8 that “As a law enforcement officer you are allowed to do a ‘search incident to an arrest’ for your own safety, and for the safety of the public. Once the arrest has been made, you are allowed to search either the person or the property to protect yourself and the public.” 

On Tuesday, prosecutors called their fifteenth witness, patrolman George Featherstone, who has been working for the Altoona Police Department for four years, and was at the stationhouse, the day that Mr. Mangione was brought in. 

Officer Featherstone told the court that he has been involved in hundreds of arrests and “every one of them resulted in a search,” and for none of them did the officers get a search warrant, because according to “search incident to an arrest” they do not need one. 

He testified that he was the “evidence custodian,” and kept all the evidence inside his office until the investigators from New York arrived. He explained how the evidence was logged, labeled and stored. All items recovered from Mr. Mangione, both from his backpack as well as the items he had on him, were treated as evidence.    

“Because this was not our case,” Officer Feathersone explained, “it was the NYPD’s case,” he went on, referring to the New York Police Department, and it was “immediately” decided to treat all property and all items as evidence. “My sole job was to maintain that evidence.” 

The court saw more pictures of evidence, and envelopes, in which the evidence was placed, that were labeled, signed and dated, as well as security camera footage showing Mr. Mangione at a CVS. He had a plastic CVS bag with him at McDonalds. Officer Featherstone said the bag contained a package of 25 CVS brand medical masks.

The hearings will resume on Thursday and are expected to last several more days. Court will not be in session on Wednesday, as the judge attends to his calendar.