NEW YORK – The pretrial hearing for Luigi Mangione concluded on Thursday, with the judge indicating a decision will be made in May regarding the admissibility of evidence in Mangione’s trial for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Over the course of three weeks, prosecutors presented nearly 20 witnesses, primarily law enforcement officers involved in the arrest of Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania, back in December 2024. Mangione’s defense team chose not to present any witnesses during this phase.

Judge Carro has set deadlines for both parties to submit written arguments, with Mangione’s attorneys expected to file by January 29 and prosecutors by March 5. The judge plans to issue his ruling on May 18.

Mangione, aged 27, aims to prevent the inclusion of certain evidence, such as a firearm and a notebook discovered in his backpack, which prosecutors argue link him to Thompson’s shooting on December 4, 2024, in Manhattan. The prosecution claims the 9 mm firearm matches the one used in the crime, and the notebook reportedly contains an entry about a plan to eliminate a health insurance executive.

The defense asserts that the backpack’s contents should be disregarded in court due to the absence of a search warrant, arguing that the police did not have sufficient justification for a warrantless search.

Prosecutors say the search was legal because it was conducted in conjunction with an arrest and officers were checking to make sure there were no dangerous items in the bag that could be harmful to them or the public. Police eventually obtained a warrant, prosecutors said.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The pretrial hearing applies only to the state case. His lawyers are making a similar push to exclude the evidence from his federal case, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Mangione was arrested after customers spotted him eating breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, a Pennsylvania city of about 44,000 people some 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. The restaurant’s manager told a 911 dispatcher customers thought “he looks like the CEO shooter from New York.”