What are the key evidence in Luigi Mangione's court battle? Lawyers appeal to dismiss items as prosecutors play 911 audio that led to his arrest

A pretrial hearing in Luigi Mangione’s case was held on December 1. During the hearing, the video footage of CEO Brian Thompson being shot in Manhattan on December 4, 2024, was played in court. According to the prosecutors, it was Mangione who took out his gun and shot the UnitedHealthcare CEO.

During the hearing, Mangione’s legal representative, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, objected to the video being played. However, the judge rejected Agnifilo's request. According to TMZ, his legal representatives have been trying to keep some of the evidence from the court. These include statements to officials and whatever was recovered from his bag after the arrest.

Another angle of the whole trial is how Luigi Mangione was recognised by the McDonald’s people from where he was arrested. The outlet mentions that people recognised him from his eyebrows. Although he wore a mask, customers suspected that he could be one of the police officers who were looking for in connection with Thompson’s shooting. As per the 911 call, they said:

“Looks like the CEO shooter from New York.”

A Corrections officer, Tomas Rivers, also spoke during the December 1 pretrial. He remembered that he was sitting in front of Luigi Mangione’s cell when they chatted about a range of issues. Tomas said they talked about the healthcare situation and how Tompson’s shooting incident was portrayed in the media. Tomas recalled how Mangione was upset over being compared to Ted Kaczynski. He also mentioned that he must keep a written track of Mangione’s movements at least seven times every hour.

Luigi Mangione said that his music preferences changed as per the instructions of another inmate

In October 2025, a letter by Mangione circulated online in which he wrote that one of the inmates at the prison asked him to listen to Lil Durk’s music. As seen in a post by ‘@Kurrco,’ he wrote:

“Last week, I downloaded a bunch of Taylor Swift and Charli XCX onto my tablet. I've never really listened to either of them, but some phony list of my favorite music circulated on social media, [REDACTED].”

He further explained:

“Rather than being a buzzkill and set the record straight, I figured I'd see what all the hype was about. So I'm walking laps on the top tier of my unit listening to "Cardigan" by Taylor Swift when one of the other inmates, "King", calls me over to see what I'm listening to. He scolds me for a while, then replaces all my music. Now I listen to "Lil Durk".”

Meanwhile, during the pretrial, Tomas Rivers said that the reason Luigi Mangione was under constant watch was that he could be a threat to himself. He added:

“There’s a paper trail of their behaviors and movements.”

He said that it was also feared that a situation like Jeffrey Epstein could happen, and hence, the surveillance was strengthened. Moreover, he mentioned that Luigi Mangione was moved to SCI Huntingdon due to security reasons.

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