Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering a health care executive in a brazen attack on a Midtown street, is asking a judge to dismiss the most serious charges in his four-count federal indictment and to suppress evidence found in his backpack.<\/p>\n
An attorney for Mangione submitted a motion to dismiss the murder and firearms charges in Manhattan federal court early Saturday morning, which \u2014 if successful \u2014 would eliminate the possibility of Mangione facing the death penalty.<\/p>\n
The attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, also argues prosecutors shouldn\u2019t be able to use evidence collected from Mangione\u2019s backpack, which she claims police should have gotten a warrant<\/a> to search when Mangione was handcuffed in a McDonald\u2019s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in the days following the December attack.<\/p>\n Lawyers are also looking to suppress Mangione\u2019s initial comments to police at the fast-food restaurant.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause the government cannot establish that the searches at the McDonald\u2019s or later at the precinct were valid inventory searches pursuant to established or standardized procedures, the evidence illegally recovered from Mr. Mangione\u2019s backpack must be suppressed,\u201d Agnifilo wrote in a 48-page memo.<\/p>\n Prosecutors allege Mangione shot and killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson<\/a> on West 54th Street in December 2024. After the shooting, prosecutors say, Mangione cycled away on an e-bike and led law enforcement on a manhunt that lasted several days.<\/p>\n Five days later, police in Altoona arrested Mangione after another McDonald\u2019s customer recognized him as the person she\u2019d seen in images released by the NYPD, and called authorities. The officers who arrested Mangione found a 9 mm handgun, ammunition and a handwritten manifesto that was critical of health care companies in the United States, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n Mangione was charged in Thompson\u2019s killing in state court in Manhattan, as well as by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. In April, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case and called Thompson\u2019s killing a \u201ccold-blooded assassination that shocked America.\u201d<\/p>\n In the court papers filed Saturday, Agnifilo made a complex legal argument that Mangione\u2019s high-level murder and firearms charges should be dismissed. The two charges \u2014 murder committed by the use of a firearm during a crime of violence, and a related firearms charge \u2014 require that Mangione committed a separate, underlying violent crime. Federal prosecutors argue that underlying crime is stalking, of which Mangione is facing two counts, while Agnifilo argues that doesn\u2019t fit the bill.<\/p>\n In September, judges in both his cases ruled that state and federal prosecutors had made missteps.<\/p>\n In the federal case, Mangione\u2019s attorneys accused Department of Justice officials of violating his right to a fair trial by sharing opinions that he was guilty on social media.<\/p>\n