Hey Everyone,
Apologies for the silence this week. I’ve been busy!
As you know, together with James Patterson, I am writing a book on the murder of United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, who was shot dead in the middle of Manhattan on December 4th last year, allegedly by Luigi Mangione. I’m not going to share any of my exclusive reporting here, obviously, but I will give you my knee-jerk takeaways from the courtroom because what happened there is public.
I was at the kick-off of pre-trial hearings in which Mangione’s defense team is arguing that the contents of Mangione’s backpack (the gun, and the “manifesto” among them) should be inadmissible at trial, because he was locked into conversation with the arresting officers at a McDonalds in Altoona, Pennsylvania, before being read his Miranda rights, and his backpack was searched without a warrant.
Prosecutors are said to be bringing as many as 28 witnesses, which means, if we move at the current pace, these hearings could go on until Christmas.
Last week we saw on video that by the time Mangione was cuffed and brought out to a police car, a staggering total of 14 law enforcement officers had arrived on the scene. Prosecutors are trying to show that this was because the lead arresting officer, Patrolman Joseph Detwiler, had instantly recognized Mangione as the same person whose features were all over the news in the wake of Thompson’s murder, and that Detwiler also knew from (Fox) news that the murder weapon had not been found. In other words, their point is: the Altoona PD doesn’t normally call 14 officers to a scene for a case of a fake id, which is the official reason they were able to detain Mangione.
In court, we are currently watching the scene of the arrest from an assortment of different police bodycams, so while it’s generally fascinating, parts of it are very repetitive.
What this means for me personally, is that a. I will never be able to forget the very unappealing, sterile interior of this particular McDonalds – white tiled walls with a mustard yellow stripe that runs horizontally at the level of Mangione’s head. And b. I keep humming all the kitschy Christmas music that was being piped out while the arrest was going on!
More seriously, my chief thought so far, is this:
Read my chief thoughts so far on Vicky Ward Investigates.