Luigi Mangione's court date moved to next month as his lawyers challenge evidence from his arrest
Luigi Mangione, accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer, was scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday in New York City, but his hearing has been pushed back to next month.
Meanwhile, his legal teams in both New York and Pennsylvania claim his rights were violated when he was arrested last December. They say he wasn't read his Miranda rights and his DNA was collected illegally when he was given a snack and drink.
Luigi Mangione's next court date
Mangione's next federal court hearing is now scheduled for April 18, followed by a state court hearing in June.
The 26-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murder, terrorism and other charges in the Dec. 4, 2024 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The father of two was on his way to an investors conference when he was shot in the back on the sidewalk.
The shooting prompted a five-day manhunt for his killer, leading to Mangione's arrest in Pennsylvania, where police said he was found with a backpack containing a gun that matched the murder weapon and a notebook that had writings critical of the health insurance industry.
He was extradited from Pennsylvania and is currently in federal custody at Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn, known as MDC Brooklyn. While he faces both state and federal charges, the latter carry the possibility of the death penalty.
At his last court appearance in February, he sat attentive, wearing a bulletproof vest and shackles. Defense attorney Karen Agnifilo expressed concern she was missing the bulk of the evidence, saying it may infringe on his right to a fair trial.
The judge set an April 9 deadline for the defense to submit pretrial motions and gave prosecutors until May 14 to respond. The judge is expected to rule on the motions on June 26.
"They're looking to toss every bit of evidence they can"
CBS News law enforcement contributor and former NYPD deputy commissioner Richard Esposito says the defense wants to dismantle the case on technical grounds.
"So they begin with asserting that he was detained without probable cause -- the officers approached him at McDonald's, prohibited his movement and did not read him his rights before they began collecting what could be evidence," Esposito told CBS News New York.
"If a person is arrested, in most states, you're allowed to take nonintrusive swabs from someone's cheek. And the use of touch DNA is also acceptable," he went on to say. "But in this case, they're questioning whether he was arrested before the DNA was taken."
These alleged errors took place in Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona. How could they impact his case in New York and his case on federal charges?
"It will impact all of his case, in that, any evidence that the defense successfully gets tossed out can't be used in any of the cases," Esposito explained. "So this is the moment of arrest, this is the first time the suspect has been caught, and they're going to question everything from the anonymous call to police, to the way that the authorities detained him, to the collection of what was in his backpack, where we know there was a ghost gun and what's been called a manifesto.
"In the same court hearings, they also questioned whether releasing that so-called manifesto prejudiced the case, as well," he continued. "So they're looking to toss every bit of evidence they can, and it looks like they're going to take that strategy throughout this case."
