Overview
- Judge Gregory Carro, ruling Monday, said prosecutors may use a 3D‑printed gun, a silencer, and a red notebook seized from Luigi Mangione’s backpack at the Altoona police station.
- He threw out items taken during the earlier McDonald’s search, including a loaded magazine, cellphone, passport, wallet, and computer chip, after reviewing body‑camera footage and finding the on‑site search was improper and warrantless.
- The court deemed the station search a valid inventory procedure that catalogs a detainee’s property for safekeeping, which made the gun, silencer, and notebook admissible.
- Carro also suppressed some early statements Mangione made before he was in custody, though later statements will be allowed after Miranda protections were clear.
- The state ruling departs from an earlier federal decision that kept most backpack evidence in play, and the New York case remains set for Sept. 8 with Mangione facing second‑degree murder and related charges that could bring life in prison.