Luigi Mangione trial judge allows gun and notebook to be used as evidence

The judge overseeing Luigi Mangione’s Manhattan state court trial ruled Monday that some evidence gathered during his arrest would be barred from court.

“The evidence found during the search of the backpack at the McDonald’s must be suppressed, including the magazine, cellphone, passport, wallet and computer chip,” Judge Gregory Carro said in his 18 May decision.

Carro ruled, however, that evidence recovered at the police station was admissible, including the gun which authorities allege is the murder weapon.

“The search of the backpack at the misconduct at the McDonald’s was an improper warrantless search,” Carro said in court while briefly summing up his ruling. “Therefore those items found in the backpack during the search at the McDonald’s will be suppressed.”

“The subsequent search of the backpack at the station was a valid inventory search,” he said. “The items recovered at the station will not be suppressed.”

The ruling was released moments before Mangione appeared in advance of his highly anticipated trial over the murder of healthcare executive Brian Thompson on a New York City street. He was escorted into court just before 10am, wearing a navy blue suit.

Carro has for months weighed whether to toss some prosecution evidence at Mangione’s 8 September state criminal trial. The defense has contended that police who arrested Mangione at an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s on 9 December 2024 did not apprise him of his constitutional rights.

Mangione’s defense has insisted that because he was not immediately apprised of his rights, statements he made to police officers should be barred from the trial. They also claim that evidence gathered during a police search of Mangione’s backpack at the fast food restaurant should be prohibited from court, arguing that authorities engaged in a “warrantless search”.

Authorities defended searching Mangione’s backpack without a warrant at the McDonald’s, citing exigent circumstances. Carro disagreed.

“Even if the backpack could be seen as within the defendant’s control or grabbable area, the People did not meet their burden of demonstrating exigency,” Carro wrote. “The People assert that the police were merely searching for explosives in an effort to protect themselves and the public, before removing the backpack to the station.

“However, this justification for searching the backpack does not hold up to scrutiny,” he said.

Carro will allow prosecutors to bring into evidence Mangione’s alleged notebook containing a purported manifesto, “as the officers did not open or search it at the McDonald’s”.

When two Altoona police officers initially approached Mangione and asked his name at the restaurant, he allegedly responded “Mark Rosario” and provided a New Jersey driver’s license to them with that name.

Carro also said that Mangione was officially in custody a little later, “once more than eight officers arrived at the [McDonald’s], and surrounded the defendant such that a reasonable person would not believe they were free to leave” before being given his Miranda rights.

Mangione’s responses to officers’ questions between being detained and Mirandized “that were interrogation or the functional equivalent”– such as being asked why he lied about his name–will be kept out of his trial.

The court proceeding this morning lasted about 15 minutes. Much of the proceeding unfolded among attorneys and Carro at the bench.

As they chatted, Mangione appeared to crane his neck as if trying to hear what they were saying. At one point, it looked as if Mangione was subtly nodding.

Some of the approximately two dozen Mangione supporters in attendance could be seen stretching and staring toward the front of the courtroom as this discussion unfolded. During the brief proceeding, several with pen and paper seemed to be taking notes.

Mangione is accused of gunning down Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO, outside a Manhattan hotel on 4 December 2024. The killing spurred a massive manhunt that concluded after an anonymous tipster called in a tip that they spotted Mangione at the restaurant.

Mangione also faces charges in Manhattan federal court, with that trial scheduled to begin in January 2027. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Carro on 16 September 2025 tossed the top two state charges against Mangione – first-degree murder and second-degree murder as terrorism crimes. He still faces nine counts in his state case such as second-degree murder, which carries a sentence range of 25 years to life in prison.

The Guardian wp:paragraph