Jury choice for Luigi Mangione set as trial is dependent upon dying penalty resolution | EUROtoday

Jury choice within the federal homicide trial of Luigi Mangione, accused within the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is about to start Sept. 8, a decide dominated Friday.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett mentioned the rest of the trial schedule, together with opening statements and witness testimony, will rely upon whether or not prosecutors are permitted to hunt the dying penalty, one in all a number of issues nonetheless into consideration.

If capital punishment stays an possibility, the subsequent part of the trial would begin Jan. 11, 2027, greater than 4 months after jury choice begins. If not, opening statements are scheduled for Oct. 13. Capital instances require considerably extra preparation time resulting from their complexity.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not responsible to federal and state homicide prices that carry a possible life sentence. A date for the state trial has not but been set.

Garnett set the dates as Mangione returned to court docket for a listening to on procedures governing the police seizure of his backpack after his Dec. 9, 2024, arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The metropolis is about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan, the place Thompson was killed 5 days earlier.

Mangione’s legal professionals need Garnett to bar prosecutors from utilizing sure gadgets discovered within the backpack, together with a gun police mentioned matched the one used to kill Thompson and a pocket book wherein Mangione purportedly described his intent to “wack” a medical insurance government.

Separately, Garnett is contemplating a protection request to bar prosecutors from looking for the dying penalty.

Mangione’s legal professionals argue that the costs enabling prosecutors to hunt capital punishment are technically flawed and that the federal government prejudiced Mangione by publicly declaring its intent earlier than acquiring an indictment.

Friday’s listening to was restricted to the backpack subject, with only one witness: Altoona Police Department Deputy Chief Nathan Snyder. He testified for about 90 minutes, answering questions from a prosecutor, a protection lawyer and even the decide herself.

Garnett known as the listening to as a result of she wished to listen to from a police official “about the established or standardized procedures in use” on the time of Mangione’s arrest “for securing, safeguarding, and, if relevant, inventorying the non-public property of an individual arrested in a public place.”

Prosecutors said Snyder, who was promoted to the post three weeks ago, was not involved in Mangione’s arrest, had no involvement in the Altoona police investigation of Mangione and has not had substantive conversations with officers who participated in the arrest about their actions that day.

Garnett said she found the hearing “very helpful,” but issued no rulings.

Mangione, his feet shackled, wore a tan jail suit and sported a chinstrap beard at Friday’s hearing, a departure from his usual clean-shaven look. He’s scheduled to be in federal court again on Jan. 30 for a status conference.

Echoing their arguments at a recent state court hearing, Mangione’s lawyers contend the Altoona Police Department’s search of his backpack was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant. The judge in the state case said he’ll rule on evidence issues in May.

As she began the hearing, Garnett warned: “I’m not going to allow this to turn into some extension of the state hearing by proxy.”

Thompson was killed Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan lodge for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor convention. Surveillance video confirmed a masked gunman taking pictures him from behind.

Officers started looking out the backpack on the McDonald’s restaurant the place Mangione was arrested whereas consuming breakfast. Prosecutors say officers searched the bag legally as a result of Altoona police protocols require promptly looking out a suspect’s property on the time of arrest for harmful gadgets and police later obtained a warrant.

A loaded gun journal was among the many gadgets discovered on the McDonald’s.

Officers continued looking out the bag at a police station and located the gun and silencer. They carried out what’s often called a listing search and located the pocket book and different notes, together with what seemed to be to-do lists and doable getaway plans, in line with testimony.

That search, which includes cataloging each piece of a suspect’s seized property, can be required below Altoona police coverage, prosecutors mentioned. Laws regarding how police acquire search warrants are complicated and sometimes disputed in felony instances.

As a part of her inquiry, Judge Garnett ordered federal prosecutors to offer her with a replica of the affidavit submitted to acquire a federal search warrant within the matter. Mangione lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, questioned Snyder a few police division common order efficient Feb. 1, 2016, concerning arrest, search and seizure procedures.

The protection contends that looking out the backpack earlier than getting a warrant might have influenced how the affidavit was written, however prosecutors say no particular particulars about gadgets, such because the pocket book writings, had been talked about within the doc.