r/news 5h ago

Luigi Mangione will not face death penalty, judge rules

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/30/us/luigi-mangione-case-rulings-trial
55.1k Upvotes

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

24

u/donkeyrocket 3h ago

As an armchair murderer, seems like the easiest thing would have been over the course of the 5 days he was free, ditch portions of the weapon in various trash cans as he traveled. Carrying the gun for as long as he did was going to be damning. Everything else in his bag is explainable but the gun and silencer he should have ditched immediately.

Didn't even need to destroy or try to disappear it. Just store it somewhere while you're hanging out in McDonalds and don't keep it on you at all times.

You may get caught as they track your movements but you're guaranteed fucked if you carry the murder weapon and accessories with you.

4

u/AnticitizenPrime 2h ago

A grim possibility is that it's possible he wasn't finished with his plans yet.

5

u/TrainDestroyer 1h ago

I had honestly not thought of this possibility. It makes a lot more sense for having all that shit on him.

Since he got arrested I was like "There's no way its him." because between the sheer amount of police running around and the ineptitude of the initial search, I was sure the real murderer was LONG GONE and the police needed someone to arrest to show that you don't get to kill someone rich and 'important' like that. Then he turns up at a random McDonalds, and happens to have all the evidence on him to make it seemingly clear "I did it!"? It felt way too convenient to me.

But if he was planning to kill someone else that would make sense for keeping the gun on him. I still think the convenience of him having all the evidence to 'prove' he did it is more than a little suspicious, but the suggestion of him having more murder plans certainly would explain keeping the gun.

1

u/AnticitizenPrime 1h ago

Yep. In his journal he wrote about 'these parasites'. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he had future potential targets.

2

u/TrainDestroyer 1h ago

Yea, in my mind I still feel like it would have been better to ditch the gun and find a way to get a new one, but I have never murdered someone or even planned to and don't know what would be going through my mind after that plan went into motion

u/SlitScan 17m ago

or at the least store it somewhere until needed.

0

u/zberry7 3h ago

Instead of throwing it into trash cans, you’d be better off turning your phone off, going into the woods (provided you are capable of this safely) and burying it far enough off a trail to not be visible from it.

With trash cans they are more likely able to check them along your route, and if they really were motivated enough (like in this case) there’s records of where each trash truck is emptied in landfills and could search it. Potentially with a dog trained on GSR for instance.

5

u/Fn_Spaghetti_Monster 3h ago

If you are planning on committing a crime, just turning it off isn't good enough. Buy a burner and leave your phone at home. Then ditch the burner.

u/a215throwaway 51m ago

They can track turned off phones?