What to remember from Luigi Mangione’s evidence hearing

Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a case that garnered national attention, watched as new testimony and never-before-seen footage from the day of his arrest at a McDonald’s were revealed at a hearing this week.

Mr. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges related to the 2024 killing of Mr. Thompson, a father of two, as well as federal counts punishable by the death penalty.

The pretrial hearing focuses on the defense’s attempts to keep certain evidence out of the trial, which has not yet been scheduled, including items found in his backpack during his arrest and statements he made to police.

During the first two weeks of the hearing, supporters of Mr. Mangione — the scion of a prominent Maryland family and an Ivy League graduate — filled the back rows of the Manhattan criminal courtroom, some wearing a pin depicting him as a saint.

Prosecutors and Mr. Mangione’s legal team are expected to question more than a dozen witnesses since the day of his arrest, including the employees who spotted him and the police officers who arrested him.

Here’s a look at some of the key pieces of evidence discussed that provide a window into Mr. Mangione’s trial.

The pretrial hearing focused on the small-town McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., where police officers were shocked to find the high-profile suspect days after Mr. Thompson was fatally shot — and hours from the busy Midtown Manhattan crime scene.

Witnesses suggested the arrest might never have happened there if it weren’t for one of Mr. Mangione’s prominent features: his eyebrows.

During the first day of the hearing, prosecutors played a call to police from a McDonald’s employee about a tip from a restaurant customer.

The employee said the customer thought a customer looked like the suspect in the United Healthcare CEO shooting. The customer was well covered, wearing a black hoodie, a medical mask and a beige hat. But one key detail stood out.

“The only thing you can see is his eyebrows,” the employee told police.

This is not the only time Mr. Mangione’s distinguished eyebrows have been raised.

Prosecutors also entered evidence cards in Mr. Mangione’s possession that appeared to be to-do lists for the days after the high-profile shooting.

One card says, “Keep your momentum, the FBI slows down at night,” while another says, “Change your hat, shoes, pluck your eyebrows.”

Dozens of videos released by prosecutors show Mr. Mangione’s encounter with police and eventual arrest inside the McDonald’s as other customers looked on.

Responding officers recounted the images this week, telling the court what was going through their minds when they realized the 27-year-old man looked like the suspect in the photos.

On Thursday, Altoona Lt. William Hanelly said a fellow officer responded sarcastically that he would “get to it” when he heard the information about the suspect.

Mr. Hanelly told the court he understood the sarcasm because it seemed “absurd” that a shooter from “New York ended up at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.”

But at the scene, officers said they quickly noticed the resemblance to New York Police photos released to the public after days without any leads.

“It’s him. I’m not kidding. He’s really nervous. It’s him,” an officer can be heard telling Mr. Hanelly in a phone call played in court.

In one video, Mr. Mangione eats a McDonald’s meal while officers stand guard around him in the restaurant waiting for other officers to arrive.

At the hearing, Mr. Mangione watched the videos quietly from the defense table, sitting next to his lawyers – his wife and husband Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo. The latter defended Sean “Diddy” Combs, who had been acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges a few months earlier.

Dressed in a gray suit and button-down shirt most of the time, Mr. Mangione frequently took notes on a legal pad and occasionally smiled and laughed with his lawyers.

In the series of police body camera videos played for the court, Mr. Mangione’s interactions with officers ultimately led to his arrest on Dec. 9, as Christmas music blared loudly in the background of the McDonald’s.

When the officers first speak to Mr. Mangione, they ask him to lower his mask. He listens and is heard telling the officers his name is “Mark Rosario,” handing them a New Jersey ID that police later said was fake.

That identification gave the officers sufficient reason to arrest Mr. Mangione, Mr. Hanelly told the court, and in the video, Mr. Mangione tells the officers that his real name is Luigi.

In another body camera video, a police officer tells the 27-year-old man that he is under police investigation for giving a fake ID and Mr. Mangione is seen placing his hands on the wall while officers arrest him.

They then take a photo of Mr. Mangione, his hands behind his back, an image widely shared on social networks after his arrest.

The preliminary hearing also shed light on the items that Mr. Mangione was carrying during his arrest.

Mr. Mangione’s lawyers argued that a 9 mm handgun and a laptop computer should be excluded from the trial because the officers did not have a warrant to search his backpack. Prosecutors say Mr. Mangione wrote in his notebook about “the deadly, greed-fueled health insurance cartel.”

At Thursday’s hearing, Mr. Hanelly argued that there are exceptions for warrants.

Earlier in the week, Ms. Friedman Agnifilo questioned the officer who searched Mr. Mangione’s backpack, saying they were searching the bag “because you thought he was the New York shooter.”

“No, we’re searching everyone,” Officer Christy Wasser said.

Video played in court shows a police officer removing a series of items from the backpack, including a handgun magazine that Mr Hanelly said contained 9mm bullets – all while Holly Jolly Christmas plays over the loudspeaker.

A law enforcement official comes across a newspaper in his backpack and can be heard saying it reads like a “manifesto.”

Ms Agnifilo objected after the “overt” part of the video was played repeatedly in court, arguing the prosecutor wanted to emphasize the point.

Eventually, Mr. Hanelly said, the officers decided to stop searching the backpack and take it to the police station because “it was going to be a disaster.”

Prosecutors entered into evidence this week images of other items Mr. Mangione had with him, including a gun, a silencer, dozens of $100 bills, masks, a hair clipper and a passport.

The hearing is expected to continue next week.