(NEW YORK) — A police officer who searched accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione’s backpack when he was apprehended at an Pennsylvania McDonald’s took the stand on Monday for the fourth day of a crucial pretrial hearing in which Mangione’s defense lawyers are trying to exclude from trial critical evidence that they say was illegally seized from his backpack without a warrant.

“Holly Jolly Christmas” was playing in the Altoona McDonald’s on Dec. 9, 2024, when officer Christy Wasser — a 19-year Altoona Police Department veteran — searched Mangione’s backpack, immediately pulling out a pocketknife and a loaf of bread, five days after Mangione allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk.

When Mangione was formally placed under arrest at 9:58 a.m., Wasser testified that she “walked over and picked up his backpack.”

Two minutes into the search, Wasser was seen on body camera video extracting “wet, grey underwear” from the backpack. “And when I opened it up, it was a magazine,” she testified.

Prosecutor Joel Seidemann asked it was “fully loaded,” and Wasser responded, “Yes.”

Wasser also said she discovered a phone in a Faraday bag, designed to conceal its signal.

An officer was heard suggesting that the bag be brought to the police station to check for bombs. Wasser was heard joking that she preferred to check it at the McDonald’s because she “didn’t want to pull a Moser” — a sarcastic reference, she said, to a former Altoona officer who brought a bomb to the police station.

At 10:03 a.m. an officer was heard on the camera footage mentioning a search warrant. A different officer was heard saying that one was not needed at that stage.

Defense lawyers have argued Wasser’s actions violated Mangione’s constitutional rights and should justify excluding any of the evidence found in the bag, including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession.

“[The officer] did not search the bag because she reasonably thought there might be a bomb, but rather this was an excuse designed to cover up an illegal warrantless search of the backpack,” defense attorneys argued in a court filing. “This made-up bomb claim further shows that even she believed at the time that there were constitutional issues with her search, forcing her to attempt to salvage this debacle by making this spurious claim.”

Although Wasser’s initial search of the backpack uncovered the magazine, she missed the loaded handgun, silencer, and journal that were buried deeper in the bag, she testified.

Wasser testified that she only discovered the two items about 15 minutes later, when she conducted a further search after driving from the McDonald’s to the Altoona police station.

“There’s a weapon!” she’s heard shouting on the video footage to the other officers in the intake area, as Mangione was being searched just feet away with his ankles shackled.

“Is that the first time you opened that zipper section on the side?” Seidemann asked Wasser on the witness stand.

“Yes, sir,” she affirmed.  

With Mangione just feet away from her in the station’s intake area, she testified it would be “unwise” to continue the search near Mangione.

“Were the defendant’s hands free at the time you took out the gun?” asked Seidemann.

“Yes,” she testified.

Body camera footage showed Wasser and Deputy Chief Derek Swope take the weapon over to a nearby hallway — behind a locked door — where she cleared the gun. She mumbled — at times inaudibly — when she explained the situation to Swope on the video.

“We just checked the bag … to make sure there were no bombs or anything,” she said on the body camera footage.

As the search continued, Wasser quickly uncovered a silencer buried beneath other items in the bag. She also found a journal allegedly belonging to Mangione.

“Holy s—,” Swope can be heard saying in the body camera footage.

Wasser testified that she was cautious when checking the back because the nature of Mangione’s alleged crime “greatened [her] concern.”

“I just wanted to make sure there was nothing that could harm anybody,” she testified.

“Did any of your supervisors say, ‘Stop — go get a search warrant?'” asked Seidermann.  

“No,” she said.

The stationhouse backpack search also turned up a slip of paper with a crude, handwritten map of Pittsburgh, Wasser testified, as well as what Seidemann described as possible escape routes.

The note said, “Keep momentum, FBI slower overnight” and “Break CAM continuity.” Another line read, “3+ hrs off cam, exit diff method (ex: megabus, rail)” and a note saying “check reports for current situation.” The note also said, “bus to Penn station,” “change hat” and “either taxi … or cross river.”

Wasser was also heard on body camera footage saying she pulled hair clippers from Mangione’s bag.

Earlier in the body camera video — when she was still searching the bag at the McDonald’s while “The Twelve Days of Christmas” blared in the background — prosecutors highlighted an exchange between officers and a supervisor about whether a warrant was necessary. One officer remarked that a warrant might be needed “because of the severity of the case,” but their supervisor interjected to say that no warrant was required because the incident was a “search incident to arrest” — a warrantless search conducted of an area within the arrestee’s immediate surroundings.

Prosecutor Nichole Smith of Pennsylvania’s Blair County District Attorney’s office also testified, outlining the chain of custody of items seized from Mangione after he was apprehended.

Smith recalled a lieutenant from the Altoona Police Department calling her at 9:53 a.m. to advise her “that he had the individual responsible for the CEO shooting” at McDonald’s. Smith said she was in court at the time and interrupted the proceeding to inform her boss, Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks.

Smith said she and Weeks advised Altoona police to charge Mangione with forgery, carrying a firearm without a license, tampering with records for identification, possessing instruments of a crime and providing false identification to law enforcement.

Smith described a search warrant that obtained a court’s permission to seize Mangione’s belongings, including items in his backpack, and transfer them to the NYPD.

“Certain items in that bag were not inherently contraband, so we wanted to ensure that the court had approved,” Smith testified. “When they search the bag and they discover, for instance, the firearm, the ammunition and the suppressor, when he does not have a valid permit to carry those items concealed, they become contraband.”

Handwritten notes that police said they also discovered in Mangione’s backpack were not relevant to the local charges in Pennsylvania. Ordinarily, they would have been put aside and saved. The warrant allowed those items to be transferred as possible evidence in the New York case.

Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo objected to Seidemann referring to the writings as an alleged “manifesto” and Thompson’s killing as an “execution.” Judge Gregory Carro said it was fine for the ongoing suppression hearing but said, “You’re certainly not going to do that at trial.”

Last week, during the first week of the hearing, prosecutors called six witnesses, including the police officers who first confronted Mangione and the corrections officers who were tasked with constantly monitoring him before his transfer from a cell in Pennsylvania to New York.

Last week’s testimony shed new light on the events leading up to and following Mangione’s arrest, with the two officers who initially confronted Mangione recounting their experiences for the first time.

“It’s him. I have been seeing all the pictures. He is nervous as hell. I ask him, ‘Have you been in New York,’ he’s all quiet,” Altoona police officer Joseph Detwiler testified on Tuesday.

Prosecutors also showed in court never-before-seen security camera footage that captured the chilling moments after Mangione allegedly shot and killed Thompson in the predawn cold of New York City’s early winter. The videos provided the public with a clearer picture of the shooting and emergency response, as well as clues about the case prosecutors have built against the alleged killer.  

At least three people were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, including a woman just feet away from the suspect. The woman’s identity and whether she has spoken with police are not known.

The video also shows the suspect — after firing multiple shots — walk toward the victim, glance down at him, cross the street, then run toward a nearby alleyway. A woman holding a cup of coffee outside the famed New York Hilton on Sixth Avenue is seen flinching after hearing the first gunshot, after which she sees Thompson stumble, then appears to look straight at the gunman before running off.

Seconds later, a man inside the hotel exits, sees Thompson on the ground, then appears to point to a nearby alleyway where the suspect fled. 

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