Accused assassin Luigi Mangione returned to court Monday for the first of three hearings in which his lawyers will ask the court to toss evidence in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The 27-year-old Ivy League alumnus is accused of stalking Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, before allegedly shooting him from behind outside a Manhattan hotel before dawn.

A Pennsylvania correction officer testified that Mangione was concerned about media coverage of his case and was “disappointed” when he learned he had been compared to the “Unabomber,” Ted Kaczynski. 

Thompson, who lived in Minnesota, was expected to attend a shareholder conference later on the morning of his death.

LUIGI MANGIONE ARGUES DOUBLE JEOPARDY IN BID TO DROP MURDER CASE, SUPPRESS EVIDENCE

Mangione’s lawyers are asking the court to suppress evidence collected during his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s five days after the murder. The evidence includes physical evidence from a backpack, including the suspected murder weapon and his journals, as well as statements he made to police before they read him a Miranda warning.

The first witness was NYPD Sgt. Chris McLaughlin, a member of the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information’s office, which is responsible for communications between police and the media. 

WATCH: Mangione battles to block crucial evidence from UnitedHealthcare CEO murder trial

Prosecutors asked McLaughlin about a series of surveillance photos and videos taken in the lead-up to the shooting and its immediate aftermath, including the image of a then-unidentified person of interest smiling at a woman at a Manhattan hostel, which led to Mangione’s arrest when witnesses saw him in Altoona and called police. 

LUIGI MANGIONE PROSECUTORS FIRE BACK ON ‘EAVESDROPPING’ CLAIM

The next witness was Bernad Pyles, who works at ADI Global Distribution, a security camera company that installed the surveillance system at the Altoona McDonald’s where police arrested Mangione.

During Pyles’ testimony, a monitor showed previously unseen surveillance video from the fast food restaurant, before, during and after his arrest.

The third witness was Emily States, a 911 coordinator for the Blair County Department of Emergency Services. She testified about the 911 call placed before police arrived at McDonald’s, which was played publicly in court for the first time. 

The caller, a McDonald’s manager, described a customer, later identified as Mangione, to the dispatcher, saying he was wearing a heavy jacket and a beanie pulled down low. 

“I have a customer here that some other customers here say he looks like the CEO killer from New York,” the manager said, later explaining, “The only thing you can see is his eyebrows.”

BODYCAM IMAGES SHOW LUIGI MANGIONE’S MCDONALD’S ARREST

Prosecutors also played recordings from the dispatch radio with States on the stand, which illustrated the fake name and ID he allegedly gave to responding officers and some apparent confusion about his identity. When they ran his real name, they found no active warrants, according to the recordings.  

Next on the stand was Thomas Rivers, a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections officer at the facility where Mangione was held for 10 days before his return to New York to face charges.

He said he was told by a superior that authorities didn’t want an “Epstein-style situation.” 

According to authorities, accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in a federal jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. Rivers said he spoke with Mangione about overseas travel, and the accused assassin mentioned a fight with “ladyboys” in Thailand — an anecdote Mangione reportedly shared with friends over text message before his arrest.

He said Mangione asked him about media coverage of his own case and that Mangione was “disappointed” people had compared him to Kaczynski.

Rivers said they also talked about healthcare, but he could not remember specifics when asked during cross-examination.

Before leaving the stand, he told the court he was not conversing with Mangione in an attempt to learn more about the case.  

A second corrections officer, Matthew Henry, took the stand next.

He testified that he spoke with Mangione while he was in custody, but it was not in response to a conversation that Henry started. He said that Mangione spoke about a backpack with a 3D-printed weapon and foreign currency. He said Mangione told him people thought he was a foreign agent because he was arrested with foreign currency —and that Mangione told him he was arrested in a McDonald’s.

Henry said he didn’t respond and was not interested in getting involved in a conversation with Mangione. He said there were conversations on at least three other days that he did not recall. 

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, Henry said Mangione “blurted out” his statement about having a 3D-printed gun. 

The hearing ended after Henry’s testimony. Mangione is due back in court at 9:30 a.m. ET Tuesday.

Mangione’s charges:

New York:

• Second-degree murder, 1 count
• Criminal possession of a weapon, 7 counts
• Possession of a forged instrument, 1 count

Federal:

• Interstate stalking resulting in death, 1 count
• Stalking through the use of interstate facilities resulting in death, 1 count
• Murder through use of a firearm, 1 count
• Using a firearm equipped with a silencer in furtherance of a crime of violence, 1 count

WATCH: Luigi Mangione’s attorneys address his spirits amid lunch break during evidence hearing

The hearings are expected to run for several days, with a break on Wednesday.

There are three different types of suppression hearings — Mapp, Huntley and Mosley. Two of them are expected this week: a Mapp hearing, to determine whether certain types of physical evidence should be suppressed or thrown out, and a Huntley hearing, to determine if a confession or other statements to law enforcement are admissible. 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has not yet finalized its trial strategy, and a Mosley hearing, which determines if non-eyewitnesses can testify at trial, is not expected yet.

Mangione faces a slew of charges in New York, Pennsylvania and federally.

State-level terror charges were thrown out earlier this year, but Mangione still faces second-degree murder, seven counts of criminal possession of a weapon, and possession of a forged ID in New York.

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He faces a maximum of life in prison in the Empire State.

If convicted on the top federal charges, he could face the death penalty.

Boston’s rental market has tipped ever-so-slightly in renters’ favor, partially owing to out-of-state migration, a cooling biotech industry, and tighter student visa restrictions, according to a recent Bloomberg report. 

On the one hand, vacancies are the highest they’ve been since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the average rent in Boston has dipped for the first time since 2021, Bloomberg reported. 

On the other, the city’s average asking rent still clocked in at $3,043 in October, and reporting from The Boston Globe indicates that rents in Boston’s urban core have risen sharply between 2022 and 2025, despite the recent slowing.

Still, decreasing demand has left landlords dangling price cuts and other concessions in a bid to lure tenants.

Over in Cambridge, according to Bloomberg, a three-bedroom unit near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been sitting vacant for more than five months — even with a price cut from about $4,200 a month to $3,550. Landlords elsewhere are going into bargaining mode: new tenants at Luka on the Common in the Theater District can get one month free and a $500 gift card, while renters who sign a 17-month lease at The Indie in Allston can get up to three months free. 

Desperately needed additions to the region’s housing supply have helped ease demand; Boston’s metro area added 8,600 units over the past year, about 20% higher than its 10-year average, Bloomberg reported, citing RealPage Chief Economist Carl Whitaker.

But according to the news outlet, it’s “economic jitters” driving down rents — not an oversupply of new developments.

The recent reversal follows years of growth fueled by the region’s biotech industry, now beset by plunging valuations, layoffs, and cuts to federal research funding. Separately, as Bloomberg noted, immigration raids and student visa restrictions have taken their toll on international student enrollment, leaving some of Boston’s college-heavy neighborhoods emptier than usual. 

“I’ve been doing real estate and technology for 30 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Demetrios Salpoglou, CEO of Boston Pads, told Boston.com in August. “It’s very acute. It’s not impacting all neighborhoods … it’s really proximity to a lot of universities that have a heavy reliance on foreign money or foreign enrollment.”

Adding to the uncertainty, Massachusetts was one of just two states that saw negative employment growth for the 12 months ending in August, according to Bloomberg. And while it remains unclear how long tenants will have the upper hand, there’s a push underway for a 2026 ballot question that would tie annual rent growth to cost of living increases, with a 5% annual cap. 

In the meantime, according to Bloomberg, landlords and agents are hoping to see leasing activity bounce back in the new year. 

“Everyone’s anxiously waiting to see what happens in the spring,” Damian Szary, an executive at the real estate firm Redgate, told the news outlet.

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dreams continue to come true for a pair of Chattanooga area high school football stars, who each have their senior season still to come.

Five days after claiming his first TSSAA state championship gold ball trophy while also earning BlueCross Bowl MVP honors, Baylor’s David Gabriel Georges joined elite company as the Terrebonne, Quebec, native became the fifth high school football player from the Chattanooga area to win the Mr. Football award for a second time.

The five-star recruit and the nation’s No. 14 prospect for the Class of 2027 finished the season with 162 carries for 1,756 yards and 27 touchdowns to help Baylor cap off a perfect 12-0 season in Division II-AAA and earn a No. 16 national ranking from ESPN.

South Pittsburg junior Dayon Cooper also earned the state’s most prestigious individual honor, as he was named Class 1A’s Mr. Football winner. The speedster helped the Pirates win their eighth TSSAA state title and finished the regular season with 29 catches for 681 yards and 10 touchdowns to go along with 37 carries for 421 yards and five scores. Cooper also returned three kickoffs for touchdowns.

The other 2025 Tennessee Titans Mr. Football award winners to be recognized Tuesday inside of Nissan Stadium were East Robertson’s Zach Groves (2A), Westview’s Graham Simpson (3A), Greeneville’s Caden Baugh (4A), Sevier County’s Cooper Newman (5A), Southwind’s Kelvin Perkins (6A), Nashville Christian School’s Jared Curtis (Division II-A), Battle Ground Academy’s Kaedyn Marable (DII-AA) and Brentwood Academy’s Tommy Bauchiero, who won Kicker of the Year honors.

Gabriel Georges joins former local prep icons Adarius Bowman (Notre Dame, 2001-02), Gerald Riggs Jr. (Red Bank, 2000-01), B.J. Coleman (McCallie, 2005-06), and Jacques Smith (Ooltewah, 2008-09) as two-time Mr. Football winners.

Gabriel Georges has the chance to become the state’s second three-time Mr. Football award winner, where he would join Eric Gray, who won three times while playing at The Lausanne Collegiate School from 2016-18 before playing in college for Tennessee and Oklahoma and later with the NFL’s New York Giants.

Baylor has now produced 11 Mr. Football award winners, while there have been 55 local winners since the awards began in 1985. South Pittsburg and Tyner are tied for the second most Mr. Football award winners with seven each.

Three other local stars were honored as Mr. Football runner-ups Tuesday, including Baylor senior quarterback Briggs Cherry, Boyd Buchanan senior running back/defensive back David Green in Division II-A, and Notre Dame senior Owen Maddox, who was a nominee for Kicker of the Year.

Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.