Luigi Mangione latest: Judge orders hearing over seizure of backpack
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court, December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge on Monday changed her mind and decided there should be a hearing to determine whether Luigi Mangione’s backpack was lawfully seized and searched during his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Judge Margaret Garnett said she considered “both the arguments made by counsel” during a hearing on Friday and “the seriousness of the charges the Defendant is facing” in deciding to hold the evidentiary hearing after previously saying a hearing was unnecessary.
The brief hearing should include testimony from an Altoona police officer about the department’s procedures for securing, safeguarding and inventorying the personal property of a person arrested in a public place, the judge said. She noted that the witness did not need to be one of the dozen officers involved in Mangione’s arrest.
Several Altoona officers testified during a three-week hearing in state court where Mangione is seeking to exclude evidence police seized from his backpack, including the alleged murder weapon, a notebook and writings.
Defense attorneys are also trying to eliminate those items from the federal case, which could result in a possible death sentence if Mangione is convicted. He has pleaded not guilty in both courts.
Mangione is accused of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk in 2024.
In this screen grab from a video released by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, 31-year-old Thomas Brown is shown after his arrest. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
(MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz.) — A suspect has been arrested after two teenagers were found fatally shot in May on an isolated hiking trail in Arizona, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office said Thomas Brown, 31, has been arrested in connection to the murder investigation at Mount Ord, a remote hiking and camping area.
Law enforcement officials said they would provide more details at a Friday press conference.
On May 27, deputies responded to Mount Ord, between the cities of Mesa and Payson, to find “two deceased individuals,” according to the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office at the time said the deaths were being treated as “suspicious.”
The victims were identified as 18-year-old Pandora Kjolsrud and 17-year-old Evan Clark, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The two teens were students at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, according to a letter the principal wrote to parents at the time.
“This last week Evan was taken from me, and my level of grief feels insurmountable. I find myself at a complete loss to imagine a life without him,” Sandra Malibu Sweeney, Clark’s mother, said in a statement. “It is a small comfort to share some things about this boy who was on his way to becoming a wonderful man.”
She continued, “Evan wasn’t a typical teenager. He was funny, bright, kind and entrepreneurial. He was an old soul who was sensitive and loving. Evan wrote me letters, the last of which he gave me on Mother’s Day that was so touching it made me both laugh and cry. He was special. He deserved a long life.”
In May, the sheriff’s office said they were conducting a “comprehensive and meticulous investigation to ensure justice for the victims and their loved ones.”
“We are coordinating closely with our law enforcement partners and ask for patience and respect for the investigative process as we work through the facts,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Ta’Kiya Young, a pregnant 21-year-old, was shot and killed by an Ohio police officer after she was accused of shoplifting. Walton + Brown, LLP.
(BLENDON TOWNSHIP, Ohio) — A jury found an Ohio police officer not guilty of murder on Friday in the 2023 shooting death of a 21-year-old pregnant Black woman who was suspected of shoplifting.
Connor Grubb of the Blendon Township Police Department was cleared of murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault in Ta’Kiya Young’s death.
Body camera footage showed Grubb shooting Young on Aug. 24, 2023 while she drove her vehicle in Grubb’s direction after she allegedly stole liquor from a Kroger grocery store.
Young was seven months pregnant at the time of the incident in the store parking lot in Blendon Township, Ohio, her grandmother told ABC News in a 2023 interview. Her unborn child also died.
During closing arguments on Wednesday, Erin Claypool of the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office said that Grubb knew his actions would cause Young to suffer serious physical harm.
Claypool said that the Blendon Township Police Department has guidelines that instruct officers to take reasonable steps to move out of the path of an approaching vehicle instead of discharging their firearm at the vehicle.
Mark Collins, Grubb’s defense attorney, began his closing argument by stating that Young’s death was extremely tragic and sad, but it was up to the jury to put emotions aside and only address the facts.
“When you walk out of this courtroom to go to the jury room, the law and justice demands to be set aside that sympathy, no matter how difficult that is,” Collins said.
Grubb’s defense has asserted that Young’s car carried deadly force when she drove towards the officer, making his use of force “objectively reasonable.”
Collins claimed in his closing argument that the prosecution’s case was weak, and reliant on the testimony of two paid expert witnesses.
“Their basic case, ladies and gentlemen, is to take a video showing life saving measures, take a photo of an unborn fetus, wrap that together with two professional second guessers,” Collins said.
The prosecution noted in rebuttal that Erick Moynihan, the officer who was with Grubb during the incident, said during his trial testimony that he was not expecting for Grubb to fire his weapon.
“Sergeant Moynihan told us that he himself did not perceive Ms. Young to be a threat at all,” the prosecution said. “He didn’t even have his weapon drawn. He stated that it surprised him when he heard the sound of a gunshot. He said, ‘I wasn’t expecting that.'”
The prosecutor said during rebuttal that Grubb had “motivation” to convince the jury he was in fear of his life because then he would allegedly not be accountable for the death of Young and her unborn child.
“How many of us are really surprised that in his (Grubb’s) written statement, he writes that he fired his weapon because he believed that he was in imminent danger of death?” the prosecution said. “What would you expect him to say after he shot and killed someone and terminated their pregnancy?”
At the defense’s request, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David Young dismissed two counts of felonious assault and two counts of felony murder on Young’s unborn child on Tuesday. The judge said there was no evidence that Grubb knew Ta’Kiya Young was pregnant at the time of the shooting.
Grubb said in a statement read by the prosecution during the trial that he pointed his gun at Young after she failed to comply with his partner’s commands to get out of the vehicle. He said he felt the car strike his legs and start to lift his body off the ground.
Body camera video shows Young refusing to leave the car despite orders from officers after she was suspected of stealing alcohol from the Kroger store. Grubb’s partner was on the driver’s side while Grubb stood directly in front of the vehicle.
According to attorneys during the trial, her car was parked in a disabled parking space with no disability placard on her vehicle. License plates for the car were not visible.
Young can be heard protesting with the officers in body camera video during the encounter. The officers can be heard yelling at her to get out of the vehicle. She asked them, “Are you going to shoot me?”
The video shows Young turned the steering wheel to the right and rolled forward in an apparent attempt to drive away, Grubb was already standing in front of the vehicle before the car started moving and fired a single fatal shot into her chest through her windshield after the vehicle moved.
Young’s vehicle came to a stop against a building shortly after, as seen on the body camera video. Police said they attempted to give her life saving aid. Young and her unborn daughter were later pronounced dead at a hospital.
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
Mega Millions lottery tickets sit inside a convenience store in Lower Manhattan, (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Mega Millions jackpot is now the eighth largest in history ahead of Friday night’s drawing where one lucky person could win an estimated $965 million.
The jackpot grew from $900 million to where it currently stands after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Tuesday night.
The jackpot was last won on June 27.
The prize has a cash value of $445.3 million which can be offered as a one-time lump sum payment or an immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments.
After four jackpot wins in the first half of this year, Friday’s drawing will be the 40th drawing in this run, a game record, since it was last won in Virginia on June 27.
Even though nobody won the jackpot on Tuesday night, there were 809,030 winning tickets across all prize tiers for total nationwide winnings of more than $27.9 million, according to Mega Millions.
The odds of winning the jackpot at 1 in 290,472,336, according to Mega Millions.Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $5 for one play.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot prize ever won was $1.6 billion prize won on Aug. 8, 2023.
