NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione sat in court in a gray suit on Thursday for the third day of a hearing to determine whether prosecutors will be able to show a jury crucial pieces of evidence at his upcoming murder trial.The 27-year-old is accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, in the back at point-blank range exactly one year ago. The brazen shooting launched a massive manhunt that ended five days later with Mangione’s arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.Mangione is facing life in prison if convicted on the state murder charges. A separate, federal murder trial carries a potential death penalty. No trial date has been set for either case, and Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all charges.His appearance turned out a pack of young female supporters who have been camping outside for days in order to secure a spot in the downtown Manhattan courtroom. One wore a T-shirt reading “Italians do it better,” while another brought a sketch pad and a pink water bottle with a sticker reading, “Deny, Defend, Depose” — the three words allegedly written on different bullet casings found at the scene of Thompson’s murder.Several of Mangione’s supporters told HuffPost they even planned to brave this Friday’s potentially record-breaking cold snap in their tents.Prosecutors have spent the last two days of the pretrial hearing going over Mangione’s arrest second by second. Mangione’s defense team maintains that the trial should not include items that Altoona police found in his backpack because they had not yet obtained a search warrant, along with things he told police before he was formally read his Miranda rights and placed under arrest. Initially, Mangione gave the officers a false name along with a New Jersey driver’s license.Previously unseen body camera footage has been played in court as Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann questioned the local police officers who responded to the McDonald’s.Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing.Curtis Means / Pool Photo via APAn older female customer had thought Mangione resembled photographs of the suspect released by New York police officials and urged an employee to call 911. Altoona police officer Joseph Detwiler testified Tuesday that he was skeptical of the call, arriving on the scene without his sirens because he seriously doubted the man would turn out to be the shooting suspect.After laying eyes on Mangione, Detwiler asked him multiple times if he had “been up to New York recently.” Mangione did not offer a clear answer.On Thursday, Seidemann called Detwiler’s partner, Tyler Frye, to the stand.Jacob Kaplan, one of Mangione’s attorneys, hammered Frye on the way the officers congregated around his client and suggested there was no obvious evidence he did anything wrong. “Is it a crime to travel from New York to Altoona?” Kaplan asked.“No,” Frye responded.Around 15 minutes after Mangione handed officers a false ID, Detwiler told him that they thought he was lying and that if he gave the wrong name again, he could be arrested. Mangione gave his real name after the warning. At no point did Mangione resist the officers, act belligerently or make an attempt to lunge for a weapon, Kaplan emphasized. Mangione volunteered the fact that he had a pocket knife in his coat. Kaplan began counting the additional Altoona police officers as they entered the McDonald’s — at one point, more than a dozen were standing around the back of the restaurant, representing around half the town’s officers working at the time. Officers began rooting through Mangione’s backpack before they escorted him outside. One officer appeared to laugh as she did so. Body camera footage illustrated a mildly chaotic scene at the Altoona police station, where Mangione was instructed to take off the multiple pairs of pants he was wearing, his multiple jackets and his shoes. He also took off a silver chain necklace with a silver USB attached to it.An officer can be seen placing the backpack on a folding chair near where Mangione stood facing a wall, telling the others there was a weapon inside. Prosecutors say that inside the bag was a 3D-printed gun and writings that allegedly referenced Thompson’s shooting. Kaplan sought to portray Mangione as no threat to the officers, suggesting that it was unusual for them to search his backpack at the time that they did so. Prosecutors, though, suggested it was reasonable for the officers to believe Mangione could pose a threat to their safety. When Mangione was asked for an emergency contact at the station, he paused. He then gave an officer the name of his mother, Kathy Mangione, who had reported him missing in San Francisco just weeks before.Mangione previously told the officers he was homeless. The contents of his pockets suggested how he might have spent the hours after Thompson’s murder. A Philadelphia public transit card showed a 1:06 p.m. time stamp the day of the shooting, and a bus pass bearing the name Sam Dawson showed a journey that began in Philadelphia and ended in Pittsburgh at 11:55 p.m.Another scrap of paper showed a checklist, with items listed under both “12/8” and “12/9” — the day of his arrest — that included “Best Buy USB,” “digital cam,” “water bottles” and “trash bags.” Some items had been crossed off.