NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione beamed for the photographers as he returned to the courtroom on Tuesday, continuing his legal battle over claims that Pennsylvania authorities breached his constitutional protections during his arrest at an Altoona McDonald’s. This arrest followed the high-profile assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The day’s proceedings began with testimony from Altoona Police Officer George Featherstone, who serves as an evidence custodian. Featherstone detailed his responsibilities, which include cataloging new evidence and managing the secure evidence room.

Brian Thompson, aged 50, and a father of two, hailed from Minnesota and was in New York City for a shareholder meeting located in midtown Manhattan. Tragically, he was shot from behind on a sidewalk near the conference hotel by an unknown assailant.

In a Manhattan Criminal Court appearance on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, in New York, Mangione’s defense team is pushing for the exclusion of evidence obtained from his backpack during his arrest. They are also challenging the admissibility of his statements made during the McDonald’s incident and to jail personnel in the days that followed.

Mangione’s lawyers are asking the judge to suppress evidence taken from his backpack after his arrest, as well as statements he made during the McDonald’s incident and to jail guards in the following days.

Luigi Mangione, charged with the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, appears in State Supreme Court in Manhattan during an evidence suppression hearing in his case on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.  (Seth Wenig, Pool via AP)

While they raised Fourth and Fifth Amendment concerns, prosecutors have dismissed their claims, arguing that police acted lawfully and appropriately, that the warrantless search of his bag after his arrest was routine and legal and that the only relevant non-Mirandized statement he made was to allegedly give officers a fake name when he showed them a phony ID.

Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in New York.  (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)

Officers are allowed to ask someone’s name without reading them a Miranda warning, legal experts say. And a search of his backpack would typically be legal without a search warrant in the wake of his arrest.

Featherstone testified that he could not think of an instance where someone was brought to the precinct and an item like a backpack wasn’t searched. When a bag or a person is searched, every area is searched.

Luigi Mangione allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (AP Photo/UnitedHealth Group via AP)

The department would not release contraband back to someone, he added.

Luigi Mangione, charged with the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, appears in State Supreme Court in Manhattan during an evidence suppression hearing in his case on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (Curtis Means for Daily Mail)

The defense, however, raised additional concerns about evidence collection during cross-examination. Multiple bags were given over to the NYPD, the lead investigative agency on Thompson’s murder, without times written on them.

Mangione faces up to life in prison if convicted on a second-degree murder charge in New York. He also faces federal charges that carry the potential death penalty, and lesser charges in Pennsylvania.