The Pennsylvania lawyer representing Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is seeking to dismiss the criminal charges he faces in the state.
The Ivy League graduate is accused of gunning down Thompson near a Midtown Manhattan hotel on December 4. Authorities believe he then escaped the crime scene by foot, bike, cab, and bus to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he was arrested nearly a week later, concluding a manhunt that gripped the nation.
Police violated the law during its stop, arrest, and seizure of Mangione in December at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on December 9, 2024, his lawyer Thomas Dickey argued in a motion Monday.
The charges he faces in the state were based on evidence “received as a fruit of an illegal stop, seizure, detention, and/or arrest,” the filing stated. Mangione has not yet made a plea in Pennsylvania.
Mangione is seeking to dismiss numerous state charges: forgery, firearms not to be carried without a license, tampering records, possessing an instrument of a crime, and false identification to law enforcement. He’s also asking the court to suppress evidence, search warrants, statements made at his arraignment, as well as the reference to his so-called “manifesto.” This label was “improper” and was done “solely for the purpose to prejudice the Defendant and put him in a negative light before the public,” Dickey argued.
The Altoona Police Department “lacked reasonable suspicion” to arrest and detain Mangione at that time, the attorney said.
Before the McDonald’s employee made the 911 call that led to Mangione’s arrest, the police had “no paperwork, photograph, warrant, communication, or other information in its possession corroborating the speculation that Defendant was in fact the person being sought in New York,” the filing says.
They also lacked “probable cause” to conduct a Terry frisk, since it was done despite “no factual basis to form a reasonable belief” that Mangione may be armed and dangerous.
Police officers blocked him from leaving the fast food restaurant; he didn’t know that he was free to go, the lawyer argued.
The “unlawful detention” spanned about 20 minutes while police tried to identify Mangione as the suspect wanted in New York. Although officers also sent a photo of the defendant to agents at the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and FBI.
“No official identification of the Defendant, as being the suspect from New York, was ever made by any law enforcement personnel from the State of New York; the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, or the FBI,” Dickey argued. The purported identification as the wanted person in New York was “speculative and based on a hunch.”
Mangione was also not given any information as to why he was being held, the filing says.
After 15 minutes of “unlawful detention,” he was told he was “officially under a police investigation” but was not immediately read his Miranda rights.
Police also searched his belongings, including his backpack, without a valid warrant to search these items, the lawyer argued. They discover a 9mm handgun, a mechanized upper receiver, a suspected 3D-printed suppressor, some handwritten notes and a red notebook, dubbed by police as a “manifesto.”
Any and all items obtained from Magnione on December 9, 2024 should be suppressed, the lawyer argued.
This filing comes weeks after Karen Friedman Agnifilo, the attorney representing him in his New York state case, told the court during a pretrial hearing that she believes there were search and seizure violations during his Pennsylvania arrest.
She argued that he was “treated differently than other defendants,” since he was being held in federal custody despite the state case proceedings coming first.
He faces 11 criminal counts in New York, including murder as an act of terrorism, in connection with the December 4 killing; he has pleaded not guilty.
He also faces murder and stalking charges at the federal level. He has yet to make a plea in this venue.
Mangione is due back in federal court in New York on March 19.
A GiveSendGo legal fund, created by the December 4 Legal Committee, has garnered more than $720,000 as of Thursday. Mangione’s defense team last month said he would be accepting the funds.
“Luigi is aware of the fund and very much appreciates the outpouring of support. My client plans on utilizing it to fight all three of the unprecedented cases against him,” Agnifilo said.
