The federal district judge presiding over the case against Luigi Mangione, who is accused of gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare on a midtown Manhattan street last year, scheduled a so-called suppression hearing for Friday, January 23. 

“The testimony will be limited to the topics identified in the January 12 Order,” the judge, Margaret Garnett, wrote in an order published on the court’s docket on Wednesday evening. 

As the Sun reported, the judge ordered a hearing on Monday to determine what evidence would be permitted at the upcoming federal trial. She wrote that the hearing would be “brief,” and that the testimony of one officer from the Altoona Police Department, from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who has knowledge and experience of the local arrest procedures, would suffice. 

Mr. Mangione, 27, was arrested at an Altoona McDonald’s, about 270 miles west of New York City, five days after Thompson was fatally shot. 

Defense attorneys argue that the arrest violated their client’s due process rights, because Mr. Mangione’s backpack was searched without a warrant.  Laws concerning how evidence and search warrants are obtained are often disputed in criminal cases.

Mr. Mangione is also being charged by the Manhattan district attorney’s office for the same crime. The judge, who handles the state case, also held a suppression hearing to address the same issue in December, which lasted almost three weeks. He has yet to rule.

One of the arresting officers, who testified during that hearing was Tyler Fry. The rookie officer, who had just been on the job for about six months, was being trained by an older colleague, Joseph Detwiler, on how to run traffic stops, when a 911 call came in that a customer at the McDonald’s thought that a man eating his breakfast in the corner of the lobby resembled the suspected shooter wanted for Thompson’s murder.      

When Officer Fry and Officer Detwiler arrived at the McDonald’s, they asked the suspicious man for his identification. The man handed the officers a New Jersey driver’s license with the name Mark Rosario. When the officers tried to verify the license, it turned out to be fake. The man later told the police his name was Luigi Mangione.   

The news that the suspected shooter from Manhattan may be at the local McDonald’s spread like wildfire among the Altoona police force, and more officers started to arrive. Officer Fry testified in court that there are about 80 officers working at the Altoona police station, and that they each work in three shifts, meaning there were about 30 officers on shift when Mr. Mangione was arrested. Of those 30, Officer Fry said, about half of them came to the McDonald’s, including “all patrolmen assigned to the street.” 

During the suppression hearings at state court, prosecutors showed surveillance camera footage that showed a female officer, Christy Wasser, searching Mr. Mangione’s backpack shortly after the suspect was handcuffed. Officer Wasser found a loaded magazine wrapped in wet underwear. Later, when she continued her search at the precinct she found a 3D printed handgun, a red notebook, over seven thousand dollars in cash, several USB sticks, and lose notes, including what appeared to be a pencil-drawn map indicating a route starting at Pittsburgh heading to Columbus, to Cincinnati, and possibly to St. Louis.

Investigators from the New York Police Department have said that the shell casings of the bullets found at the crime scene match the handgun recovered from Mr. Mangione’s backpack, while the notebook contains writings that express his strong disapproval of the healthcare industry. 

If defense attorneys can prove that this crucial evidence was obtained unlawfully, the judge could preclude it from the trial. 

Defense attorney Jacob Kaplan argued during the hearing held at federal court on January 9 that a patrol guide book used by Altoona officers gives the officers “the opportunity to safeguard the property,” when they are making an arrest in a public place, but not the authority to “actually go through the property.” 

The first district attorney from Pennsylvania’s Blair County District Attorney’s Office, Nichole Smith, who also testified during the state court suppression hearings, told the court that her office issued a search warrant to seize Mr. Mangione’s belongings, including the items in his backpack, and transfer them to the New York Police Department later in the afternoon. She did not, however, mention a search warrant for the actual search. 

Judge Garnett asked prosecutors to provide her “with a copy of the affidavit in support of the federal search warrant, and any documents incorporated therein by reference.” 

Mr. Mangione is being prosecuted in three separate jurisdictions for crimes relating to the killing of Thompson: In Pennsylvania state court, where he was arrested, in New York state court, and in federal court at the Southern District of New York, where federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. 

Mr. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges.