A defense lawyer from Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing the CEO of Unitedhealthcare, insists that a police search and arrest within a McDonald’s Pennsylvania at the end of last year were illegal.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a five -day human hunt for the suspect in the fatal shooting of the CEO of United Healthcare, Brian Thompson, outside a hotel in New York City on December 4.
In a judicial presentation published in the Figure of the Pennsylvania court on Friday, Mangione’s lawyer in Pennsylvania, Thomas Dickey, said that Mangione was never properly read his rights.
Luigi Mangione (C), a murderer accused of the US insurance CEO. Uu. Brian Thompson, arrives at a audience in New York City on February 21, 2025.
Timothy A. Clary/AFP through Getty Images, Archive
Instead, said Dickey, the officers of the Altoona Police Department “continued to question and questioning the defendant, without any reading of his rights of Miranda.”
The defense lawyer also said that Mangione received a “misleading and unreasonable” response of why the officers approached him.
“At no time the two officers indicated that the defendant was free to leave; they also did not explain the reasons why the defendant was being arrested; apart from that, he seemed suspicious and/or welcomed as a client in McDonalds,” Dickey wrote.
Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of the executive president of the UnitedHealth group, Brian Thompson, appears in the Supreme Court of Manhattan for positions of murder and terrorism of the state of New York in New York City, on February 21, 2025.
Steven Hirsch/Pool/AFP through Getty Images
In Pennsylvania, Mangione declared himself innocent of falsification positions, possession of an instrument of a crime and giving a false identification to an officer.
He also declared innocent of the murder positions in New York, a case that has priority on the case in Pennsylvania, where the judicial dates have been discarded and new dates were established. Mangione also faces federal charges, including a murder charge through the use of a firearm, which makes it eligible for the death penalty.
His New York lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has also raised doubts about Mangione’s treatment in Penylvania’s custody, arguing during a recent audience that the images of the police chamber indicate that the “constitutional rights of his client were violated.”
“I think there is a very, very serious search problem in this matter, and there may be evidence that is suppressed,” said Agnifilo.
