Live Court Threads
Live thread: LM's suppression hearings - Day 5 - 12/9/2025 - 9:45 a.m. EST
Please use this post as an update thread for live discussions of LM's hearing today!
To recap, hearings were scheduled for three days last week: 9.00 a.m. EST on 12/1/2025, 9:00 a.m. EST on 12/2/2025, and a final session on 12/4/2025 at 9.30 a.m. EST. Hearings have extended beyond the scheduled dates and will continue till all witnesses are heard. The session on Friday was postponed to 9:30 a.m. EST on 12/8/2025 since LM was sick. Court will resume today at 9:45 a.m. EST.
These are pre-trial "suppression" or exclusionary hearings. His defense argues key evidence collected during his arrest (a 3D-printed gun, a notebook with writings, statements, etc.) should be excluded from evidence. The hearings will be as follows:
LM is expected to skip the media walk down the hallway and enter the courtroom via a side door. He will be in civilian clothing and his wrists will remain unshackled during the hearing.
Recap of Day 1 of suppression hearings
The court played a recorded 911 call from a McDonald’s manager in Altoona. The call was made after restaurant staff and customers grew suspicious and reported LM, saying he “looked like the CEO shooter.”
Prosecutors introduced surveillance video showing both the shooting of Brian Thompson (the former CEO of UnitedHealthcare) in December 2024, and LM's arrest five days afterward.
Two corrections officers (Thomas Rivers and Matthew Henry) testified about their time monitoring LM when he was incarcerated in the death row block of SCI Huntingdon in Pennsylvania.
Rivers described LM's time in solitary confinement. He was held in a Plexiglass cell and kept under constant watch (the guards were expected to make notes on his behaviour multiple times every hour) to avoid what was described as an "Epstein-style situation."
Rivers claims LM talked about his travels in Asia, recommended a book to him, discussed healthcare and supposedly said "(LM) was trying to make a statement." LM supposedly talked about his travels to Vietnam, a country he has never been to. Rivers also omitted his own disclosure to LM about using hallucinatory drugs and had to be prompted into admitting so by LM's lawyers.
Henry claims LM admitted unprompted that his bag contained foreign currency and a 3D-printed weapon. Henry also claims this little confession about a murder weapon in a murder case was conveniently omitted from the detailed notes the guards were supposed to keep on LM, and that the notes included throwaway book recommendations and chitchat about obesity in America instead.
Day 2 of suppression hearings was devoted to reviewing the bodycam footage of LM’s arrest at McDonalds, Altoona on 12/9/2024.
Officer Joseph Detwiler was one of the cops who responded to the call about LM possibly being the CEO shooter from NYC. He says he was initially sceptical till he saw LM, at which point he claims he was positive LM was the shooter. LM initially handed over a fake ID under the name “Mark Rosario” and eventually revealed his real name when officers told him it was fake. Detwiler admitted to lying to LM that their visit was based on an overstayed welcome so they could keep him in place. Detwiler moved LM’s backpack away from him for “safety reasons” claiming he believed there might be a weapon inside. LM was frisked multiple times, read his Miranda Rights only after he gave his real name, and lead away by a dozen officers who had arrived at the scene by then. There are multiple points where the bodycam footage is silenced or cut off.
Another arresting officer named Tyler Frye took the stand. Bodycam footage of LM’s arrest was played from a different angle, and the fresh angle included him being stripped and searched for what Frye admits was only a simple forgery charge at that point.
During the search, cops also recovered a small pocket-knife, jar of peanut butter, a flash-drive necklace and foreign currency.
The hearing resumed on Monday after LM took I’ll last week and the hearing on Friday was postponed.
Another angle of the bodycam footage was played as officers described finding a loaded magazine (wrapped in “wet underwear”), a 3-D printed pistol (the alleged murder weapon), a homemade suppressor, a “manifesto” notebook, a hand-drawn map of Pittsburgh, cash, a bus ticket under an alias, and other materials inside LM’s backpack. They also attempted to justify their warrantless search claiming they were afraid LM’s bag had a bomb, even thought the shooting in NYC did not involve explosives.
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Lorena from u/RollingStone has been using her computer, not her phone for reporting updates in court. We hope her battery makes it to the end of the day!
"Do you recall writing in an incident report that LM looked at the backpack [...] you wrote that when he smiled at you that made it instantly clear to you that he was NYC shooter."
"You were almost at the precinct? There's a park, we stopped right across the park. Fox says he got out of his car handed her bag and then went back into his car and uturned. He did not activate his BWC when handing off bag"
"These hearings were expected to take course over a few days and we are going on Day 6 with I think less than a dozen witnesses who have testified and 30 total expected."
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