Luigi Mangione due in court for pivotal hearing on his backpack — and he may appear in a suit

Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League graduate accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare’s CEO on a Midtown sidewalk, is set to return to a Manhattan courtroom on Monday for an evidence hearing that could be decisive for his state case.

The 27‑year‑old heir of a wealthy Maryland family—who has previously appeared in a bullet‑proof vest, sweaters, and the customary tan jail scrubs—is expected to come in a suit for a marathon proceeding in which prosecutors plan to call more than two dozen witnesses involved in his arrest.

The hearing will focus on Mangione’s allegation that his rights were violated when officers searched his backpack without a warrant after apprehending him inside an Altoona, Pa., McDonald’s—where someone spotted the suspect lower his COVID‑19 mask to eat a hash brown.

If Judge Gregory Carro sides with him, prosecutors could be dealt a severe blow by being barred from showing jurors what was inside the bag, including the handgun allegedly used in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the notebook in which Mangione supposedly outlined his motive.

“It could be devastating to the People’s case if they lost the backpack containing the murder weapon,” defense attorney and former Brooklyn homicide prosecutor Julie Rendelman told The Post.

“While the People do have other evidence supporting his guilt, suppression would severely limit the evidence they can point to at trial.”

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is gearing up to call an astonishing 28 witnesses and play “hours and hours of body cam footage” at a hearing that could stretch for an entire week, one of Mangione’s lawyers, Marc Agnifilo, explained to a judge last Monday in a separate scheduling matter.

The unusually large number of witnesses for a pre‑trial hearing—and the fact that the hearing will also examine whether police illegally questioned Mangione before reading him his Miranda rights—“does not generally bode well” for the prosecution, defense attorney Seth Zuckerman said.

“It may be a tacit acknowledgement that they recognize there are issues with the police’s warrantless search and questioning of Mangione,” the founder of Zuckerman Legal Group told The Post. 

Zuckerman, a former prosecutor, believes there’s an “excellent chance” that Judge Carro will suppress at least some of the evidence, as “it appears clear” that the Altoona police “bungled the search of Mangione’s backpack by not following protocol and not waiting for a warrant.”

In a separate federal case in Manhattan, Mangione faces additional charges, and the feds have taken the unusual step of requesting the death penalty—a move that his lawyers have called political.

The accused murderer has become a cult figure for some, with a crowdfunding campaign that raised over $1 million to cover his legal expenses, after evidence surfaced that Thompson—a father of two—was killed in a targeted hit intended to expose alleged flaws in the healthcare industry.

Shell casings found at the scene bore slogans that echoed language allegedly used by major health insurers to deny coverage claims.

In a notebook found inside his backpack, Mangione plotted to “rebel against the deadly, greed‑fueled health insurance cartel” by targeting “a company that literally extracts human life force for money.”

“I do apologize for any strife or trauma, but it had to be done,” the accused killer wrote in a separate letter addressed to the FBI, court records show.

“Frankly, these parasites had it coming.”

The judge in Mangione’s federal case has ordered that correctional staff at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center allow the alleged assassin to trade his drab inmate scrubs for a borrowed suit, with the option to choose from two suits, three shirts, and three sweaters to wear during his appearance on Monday morning.