Judge Gregory Carro Allows Evidence After Ruling Police Unlawfully Searched Luigi Mangione’s Backpack

A state court judge partially granted Luigi Mangione’s bid to suppress evidence found in his backpack during his arrest, in a case accusing him of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Midtown sidewalk in December 2024.

“NEW YORK — A state court judge on Monday partially granted Luigi Mangione’s bid to prevent evidence found in his backpack during his arrest from being admitted at his murder trial for allegedly assassinating a health insurance executive in Manhattan”

Minnesota Lawyer

Judge Gregory Carro ruled that police unlawfully searched the bag without a warrant, but he said a second search of the backpack at a police station was lawful and that items recovered then would be admissible.

Minnesota Lawyer

Carro’s decision was announced during a brief hearing at a New York state court in Manhattan, with Mangione in attendance, and the ruling came as Mangione’s trial was set to begin on Sept. 8 and expected to last six weeks.

The judge also denied Mangione’s bid to suppress his initial statements to law enforcement, rejecting his argument that he was illegally interrogated.

Prosecutors with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg deny claims that Mangione was illegally searched and questioned, and they say they have ample evidence linking him to the killing.

In a separate account of Carro’s ruling, The Guardian reported that Carro said, "The evidence found during the search of the backpack at the McDonald’s must be suppressed, including the magazine, cellphone, passport, wallet and computer chip."

The Guardian also quoted Carro saying the subsequent search of the backpack at the station was "a valid inventory search," and that "The items recovered at the station will not be suppressed."

The Guardian

Carro ruled that the warrantless search at the Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s was improper, and he wrote that "the People did not meet their burden of demonstrating exigency" even if the backpack was within a grabbable area.

The Guardian said Carro would allow prosecutors to bring into evidence Mangione’s alleged notebook containing a purported manifesto because "the officers did not open or search it at the McDonald’s."

The ruling was released moments before Mangione appeared in advance of his highly anticipated trial over the murder of Brian Thompson on a New York City street.

Mangione is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Midtown sidewalk in December 2024, and the killing occurred on December 4, 2024 outside the Hilton hotel where UnitedHealth Group’s health insurance business was holding an investors’ meeting.

“NEW YORK — A state court judge on Monday partially granted Luigi Mangione’s bid to prevent evidence found in his backpack during his arrest from being admitted at his murder trial for allegedly assassinating a health insurance executive in Manhattan”

Minnesota Lawyer

The Minnesota Lawyer | Other said Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania after a five-day manhunt and has been jailed ever since, and it described that state prosecutors initially charged him with terrorism before Judge Carro threw out that charge for lack of evidence aimed at influencing public policy.

In the same case, Carro’s earlier decision eliminated the possibility of the death penalty, but Mangione could face life in prison if convicted of stalking, while federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York separately brought murder, weapons and stalking charges.

The Guardian reported that Carro tossed the top two state charges on 16 September 2025—first-degree murder and second-degree murder as terrorism crimes—while Mangione still faces nine counts in his state case such as second-degree murder with a sentence range of 25 years to life in prison.

The Guardian also said Mangione has pleaded not guilty in both cases, and that his Manhattan federal court trial is scheduled to begin in January 2027.