Luigi Mangione Suppression Fight Returns to Federal Court

NEW YORK CITY — The fight over what federal prosecutors will be allowed to show a jury in Luigi Mangione’s case returned Friday to a black backpack taken into police custody hundreds of miles from Manhattan.

Mangione appeared before U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett on Jan. 23 for a federal evidentiary hearing examining how police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, handle a person’s belongings after an arrest — and whether the procedures officers followed in Mangione’s case permit prosecutors to use what authorities say was ultimately recovered from his bag.

Mangione entered the courtroom in prison clothing with his feet shackled. He has pleaded not guilty to the federal murder, stalking and weapons charges against him.

The hearing narrowed in on a question that has become central to both the federal prosecution and Mangione’s separate state case: what police were legally entitled to do with his backpack after taking him into custody at a McDonald’s in Altoona.

Federal prosecutors say the bag contained some of the most significant physical evidence in their case, including a 9-millimeter pistol, a silencer and journal entries. Mangione’s attorneys are seeking to prevent prosecutors from using that evidence, arguing that officers searched the backpack without first obtaining a warrant.

Prosecutors have defended the search on the ground that Mangione had been lawfully arrested after allegedly providing false identification and that officers were permitted to examine the bag for dangerous items before transporting it. The defense disputes that justification.

Garnett had ordered the Altoona Police Department to provide a witness who could explain its ordinary procedures for “securing, safeguarding and inventorying” property belonging to someone arrested in a public place.

That witness was Altoona Deputy Police Chief Nathan Snyder.

With Snyder on the stand, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo questioned him about what Altoona officers are supposed to do when they encounter potentially illegal or dangerous property while handling an arrestee’s belongings.

Snyder testified that if police discovered contraband such as drugs or a firearm, officers would “probably go get a search warrant.”

The answer went directly to the defense theory: that taking custody of Mangione’s backpack after his arrest was one thing, but opening and continuing to search through it without judicial authorization was another.

Under questioning from a federal prosecutor, however, Snyder added an important qualification. If officers encountered a gun, he testified, they would continue searching for other dangerous items.

The competing answers placed the department’s procedures squarely before Garnett as she considers whether the search fell within an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.

The hearing followed arguments earlier in January in which Garnett had already expressed skepticism toward portions of the defense challenge. Mangione’s lawyers have acknowledged that officers could secure the backpack following his arrest; their dispute centers on whether that authority extended to opening the bag and inventorying what was inside without first obtaining a warrant.

Friday’s testimony gave Garnett a factual record on the Altoona Police Department’s actual practices rather than leaving the question to arguments in the parties’ briefs.

The stakes extend well beyond the backpack itself. The firearm, silencer and writings prosecutors say were recovered from it could become significant evidence at an eventual federal trial. Mangione’s lawyers are asking Garnett to suppress those materials, while separately challenging the indictment and the government’s attempt to seek capital punishment.

A parallel fight is unfolding in Manhattan state court, where Mangione has also pleaded not guilty and where the judge is separately considering whether evidence from the same backpack should be admitted.

But Garnett made no decision from the bench Friday.

The hearing concluded with the suppression question unresolved, leaving the judge to determine whether the circumstances of Mangione’s arrest and the Altoona department’s property-handling procedures made the warrantless examination of the backpack lawful — and, ultimately, whether its contents can be placed before a federal jury.

For now, the federal case continues toward jury selection, which Garnett has scheduled to begin Sept. 8, 2026.