Two correction officers from a Pennsylvania state prison testified on Monday during the suppression hearings in the State of New York’s case against Luigi Mangione, who is accused of gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, on a Midtown Manhattan street almost exactly a year ago. The defense has requested these pretrial hearings in an effort to suppress incriminating evidence and testimony in the upcoming trial. 

On December 9, 2024, five days after Thompson was killed, Mr. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s outside of Altoona, in western Pennsylvania, 233 miles away from New York City. 

The Ivy League graduate from a prominent Baltimore-area family, who was 26 years old at the time, was brought to the State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon, the oldest state prison in Pennsylvania, after his arraignment. He stayed at the prison until December 19, when he was dramatically extradited to New York, where he faces both state and federal murder charges for Thompon’s killing.  

The defense is attempting to suppress the testimony of a Pennsylvania corrections officer, Tomas Rivers, who works at SCI Huntingdon. Mr. Rivers told a judge at Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday that he was assigned to watch Mr. Mangione because the correctional facility did not want an “Epstein style situation,” meaning they did not want Mr. Mangione to die in his cell. 

“I [had] never had to monitor,” Mr. Rivers told the prosecutor, who had called the witness, “someone as high-profile” as Mr. Mangione, whose arrest made headlines around the world. 

Mr. Rivers testified that Mr. Mangione inquired about the perception of him in the media, that he was curious to know if the media was more focused on him or on the crime, and that he expressed the wish to make a statement to the public (a public statement from Mr. Mangione has yet to be made). 

The officer, who is British, also said that he and Mr. Mangione had discussed comparisons between the healthcare systems in the UK and in the United States.    

“We talked about health care,” Mr. Rivers said. “Private health care and nationalized health care… I have experienced both… So I gave him my opinion.”  

The corrections officer did not disclose what his personal opinions about the different health care systems were, but he said Mr. Mangione expressed his concerns about American obesity rates.

Mr. Mangione also told the correction officer, according to his testimony, which the defense later sought to cast doubt on, about his travels to Asia, including to Thailand and Vietnam, and that he wondered why people in third-world countries, who “have so much less” are “so much happier.” The inmate also spoke to him about literature, Mr. Rivers testified that Mr. Mangione recommended the book “Doors of Perception,” to him, where the author, Aldous Huxley describes his experiences using psychedelic drugs.         

The testimony was geared to establishing the motive, but the defense questioned its validity. Under cross-examination, lead defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo asked numerous times if the officer was sure that Mr. Mangione had actually traveled to Vietnam. According to media reports, the defendant took a long trip to Thailand and Japan, but did not go to Vietnam.

If the judge admits the testimony for trial, the jury will likely see a fiery cross-examination of which the court got a taste on Monday. Ms. Agnifilo’s husband, Mark Agnifilo, who recently successfully represented the music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs and who is also on the defense team, jumped to the lectern when he cross-examined the second corrections officer. 

This officer, Matthew Henry, testified that Mr. Mangione told him that he had carried a 3D-printed handgun and foreign currency in his backpack when he was arrested, and that he was a foreign spy.

“What were you saying to him right before he told you (that)?” Mr. Agnifilo asked. 

“I don’t believe I said anything,” Mr. Henry responded. 

“When he said, ‘I had foreign currency,’ did you respond?” Mr. Agnifilo pressed. 

“No,” Mr. Henry said.  

“When he said, ‘I had a 3-D printed gun, did you respond?” Mr. Agnifilo doubled down.   

“No,” the correction officer answered. 

Mr. Agnifilo said he found it hard to believe a suspect, arrested in a murder case, would just “blurt out” that he had a 3-D printed pistol on him. The questioning came amid defense efforts to have the gun removed from evidence because the Altoona police searched Mr. Mangione’s backpack without a warrant. 

The defense attorney further wondered why the officer, who was also assigned to watch Mr. Mangione, and take detailed notes about what the high-profile inmate was doing inside his cell almost every five minutes, did not report these statements to any of his superiors. 

The prosecution plans to call about 15 more witnesses in the coming days. The defense intends to call three. The suppression hearings will resume on Tuesday morning.