Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan a year ago this week, appeared in court on Monday as his lawyers challenge the admissibility of key evidence in his case.
Mr. Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to both state and federal murder charges, which carry the possibility of the death penalty.
The pre-trial hearing could last several days, as defence attorneys are expected to call a host of witnesses, including from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested at a McDonald's.
In September, a judge threw out state terrorism-related murder charges against Mr. Mangione, arguing prosecutors had failed to establish evidence to justify them.
Mr. Mangione's legal team is now hoping to convince a judge to exclude evidence including a gun and a notebook in which prosecutors say he set out a motive.
The defendant was arrested days after he allegedly shot Mr. Thompson, a father of two, as he was walking into an investors' conference on a busy Manhattan street on 4 December 2024.
A date for either of his trials has not yet been set.
Walking into court on Monday, Mr. Mangione wore a grey suit and shirt, and court employees removed his hand restraints before he sat, as his lawyers requested.
This week's hearing focuses on whether prosecutors illegally obtained evidence from Mr. Mangione when they arrested him in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and whether it should be excluded as a result.
Defence attorneys are seeking to suppress some of Mr. Mangione's statements he made to police after being arrested, including allegedly giving them a false name. They argue he did so before police read him his rights, including the right to remain silent.
Prosecutors have alleged that Mr. Mangione - the scion of a prominent Maryland family who graduated from an Ivy League university - had written in his notebook about the deadly, greed-fueled health insurance cartel. However, defence lawyers are arguing his backpack was searched without a warrant, and the items found in it should be excluded for that reason.
Eliminating those two critical pieces of evidence - that point to a murder weapon and motive - would be a big win for Mr. Mangione's legal team. But the chances of that happening are virtually non-existent, said Dmitriy Shakhnevich, a criminal defence attorney in New York.
Mr. Mangione's attorneys have also been pushing to bar the federal government from seeking the death penalty, claiming that comments from high-ranking officials have prejudiced his case.
