And the man accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian
Thompson appearing in court today, Luigi Mangioni's attorneys attempting
to bar the state from presenting evidence found in his
backpack at the time of his arrest. They include
a handgun and a notebook that prosecutors say. Shows
intent to quote whack a health insurance executive. Mangione
has pleaded not guilty to both state and federal murder
charges. Scripps News national correspondent Alex Miller is live
in New York and has been following this case since
the beginning. Alex, what happened in court so
far? Well Andrew, this case is far from
decided in terms of what evidence is going to be
admissible in the trial. We still do not have
that trial date, but the discussion today and likely
for the days to come is what evidence is going
to be admissible whenever that trial happens. We heard
from five witnesses today who kind of painted the picture
about what we're seeing the defense tried to refute in
terms of evidence we heard from a 911. Operator
, we heard from an NYPD communications official. We
heard from corrections officers. All of these people have
stories that the defense does not want them to tell
whenever this trial does happen. They were on the
stand all day long, the court just ending for
the day just a couple of minutes ago, got
started a little bit late today because of some technical
issues, um, but really just the beginning of
what is expected to be a multi-day hearing to figure
out exactly what's going to be allowed. And Alex
, it seems like any time we see Luigi Mangioni
in public, it makes waves on social media and
beyond. What can you tell us about his demeanor
in the courtroom today? Yeah, he was very
calm today as he watched all of this evidence be
presented. Remember, we saw a lot of visual
evidence, and he had really no reaction. First
from the NYPD communications officer, we saw the photos
that were blasted all over TV and social media as
there was the search for him, photos that obviously
resemble and are alleged to be him at the hostel
in taxicabs on the street. We also saw.
A video of the shooting itself. I had a
perfect shot of him, and I could not see
any real reaction. He leaned back in his chair
. He was taking it in, taking notes at
times, talking to his attorneys as these videos were
being played. We also heard the 911 recording.
We now know that it was a McDonald's manager who
called this in because some of the customers believed that
they had identified him specifically. Because of his eyebrows
, we saw the closed captioned footage at McDonald's from
the time Mangioni walked in to the time that he
was apprehended. During all of it, he was
calm, and by the way, there were about
2 dozen people in the back from the public.
Nearly all of them were young women. One of
them even had his photo on her sweatshirt, so
he definitely had the support inside and definitely the support
outside as well today. Yeah, and Alex,
one of the more interesting moments came, uh,
as you reported this out on your social media feed
from a corrections officer, uh, who was essentially
in charge, it sounds like of monitoring Luigi Mangioni
for a couple of days while he was in Pennsylvania
, and they had some conversations that you learned a
little bit about in the courtroom today. What can
you tell us? Yes, this was definitely the
most interesting part of the day. We heard from
two corrections officers. This one in particular had these
conversations. He was in charge of watching Luigi Mangioni
for two days near the end of the time that
he was being held in Pennsylvania. He had gotten
a directive from his boss to make sure that they
did not have another Epstein situation. Those were his
words, essentially insinuating that he needed to be on
suicide watch. But when they were there, they
sounded like pretty normal conversation. Mangioni's cell had a
plexiglass door, so they were able to have these
conversations. They talked about Mangioni's travels to Vietnam and
Thailand. They talked about third world countries and how
they both believed that their mental health was better in
those countries than it is here in the West,
despite the fact that they have much lower socioeconomic opportunities
than we do here in the West. There was
conversation. About health care on multiple different occasions over
the course of those two days they talked about the
difference between British and American healthcare because this corrections officer
was British. They talked about the standard of healthcare
in America, particularly relating to obesity. So there
were lots of little conversations here. There was also
a conversation about how he was being perceived. Apparently
Mangioni wanted to know how he was being perceived by
the media, so. The corrections officer apparently telling
him that during conversations on mainstream media, on the
news, that they were talking more about the crime
itself, but on social media, as we have
seen, he told him that the conversation was much
more geared towards the issue of health care. One
other thing, he, I guess, told Mangione
that he was being compared to Ted Kaczynski, and
that was something that Mangioni was visibly disappointed. About
when he was told about that, but again,
just kind of paints a picture of what we might
see on the stand whenever this trial does take place
. Obviously those conversations directly relate to the alleged crime
of the shooting of a CEO, a healthcare CEO
, and so that is why the defense likely trying
to make sure that their testimony is not admissible in
this trial. All right, Scripps News, Nashville
correspondent Alex Miller for us in New York. Alex
, thank you for the update.