Luigi Mangione’s defense on Monday sought to portray the Altoona, Pa. cop who found the alleged murder weapon used to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as rashly rooting through evidence in a frenzy over the high-profile bust.
As marathon evidence suppression hearings in Mangione’s state homicide case stretched into their second week, Altoona, Pa., Officer Christy Wasser was subjected to a grilling by the Maryland man’s lawyer about how truly concerned cops were about him having a bomb during his Dec. 9, 2024, arrest at a McDonald’s and about why she turned off her bodycam while transporting his belongings to the precinct.
Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo sought to zero in on a conversation between Wasser and higher-ranking officers at the fast food restaurant after she’d quickly searched Mangione’s backpack following his arrest — finding a magazine wrapped in wet underwear — and told her colleagues she’d looked through his things to rule out an explosive.
“At this point, we probably need a search warrant,” Corporal Garrett Trent is heard telling the patrolwoman in bodycam footage played in court.
Another beat cop interrupts to say that the bag was searched per “search incident to arrest,” protocol permitting cops to search a suspect’s belongings without a warrant at the moment of arrest.
“Yeah, but we are aware of that crime,” Trent says in the footage, referring to Thompson’s shooting.
Mangione’s lawyers are seeking to convince state Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro that the items seized should be barred from his 2026 trial as the Altoona cops had no grounds to comb through his belongings when they initially arrested him on suspicion of carrying a fake ID.
Wasser testified repeatedly that she was following protocol and that Mangione was treated no different to any other arrestee.
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The McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Luigi Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9, 2024. (Photo by ADAM GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)
As soon as Wasser got back to the station and turned back on her camera, footage showed, she searched the bag again and found a 9mm handgun, silencer and notebook one cop called a “manifesto,” among a pile of personal items, and a to-do list.
In one particularly heated back and forth, Agnifilo pressed Wasser to explain why it took her a few minutes longer than her colleagues to drive to the stationhouse from the McDonald’s with Mangione’s bag and why she’d left her gloves on for the trip and turned off her camera, accusing the cop of searching through the bag again.
“That is not accurate,” Wasser said.
Zeroing in on footage taken back at the precinct, the defense lawyer asked Wasser to explain her comment to a colleague that the situation was “awesome.”
“You say, ‘Isn’t it awesome?’” Agnifilo said.
“Yes,” Wasser said, explaining that she meant she was proud of her department.
“Because you caught the New York City shooter?” Agnifilo said.
Wasser then conceded, “Possibly.”
Curtis Means / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Supreme Court alongside his attorneys Jacob Kaplan (left) and Karen Friedman Agnifilo (right) during an evidentiary hearing on Monday. (Photo by Curtis Means / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
Carro has heard from a slate of witnesses, with many more to go.
Last week, a British correction officer testified about shooting the breeze with Mangione while he monitored his cell at a Pennsylvania prison. The guard said they spoke about the U.S.’s private health insurance system compared to nationalized healthcare in other countries and claimed the suspect was interested in how Thompson’s killing was being portrayed in the media.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has alleged Mangione, of Towson, Md., planned Thompson’s killing for months before traveling to New York on Nov. 24, 2024, and checking into an Upper West Side hostel.
Ten days later, they allege he fatally shot Thompson outside the Hilton in Midtown with the 9mm pistol Wasser later discovered. The murdered healthcare exec, 50, was a father to two teen boys. He was visiting the city from Minnesota for an investor conference at the Sixth Avenue hotel.
The weapon Mangione’s lawyers want barred from his trial is central to the DA’s case, as is the notebook retrieved from his backpack, where prosecutors say he wrote out a “manifesto.”
Mangione, a computer science Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He’s also facing federal charges alleging he stalked and murdered Thompson and in a capital case that’s also playing out in Manhattan. His lawyers are seeking to convince the presiding judge in the that case to take the death penalty off the table.
