A judge has granted Luigi Mangione access to a laptop in prison as he awaits trial for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione’s attorneys requested the laptop so the accused killer can prepare for the upcoming trial and view discovery material, court filings show.
The Ivy League graduate, 27, faces four federal charges for the fatal shooting of Thompson, who was gunned down in midtown Manhattan last December. The charge of murder through the use of a firearm carries the possibility of the death penalty.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett granted Mangione’s request for a laptop Monday, permitting him to use it seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The laptop will not be connected to the internet and he will only be able to view case-related files like videos and documents, his defense attorney Karen Agnifilo wrote.
Mangione is being held at the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City, a facility that has been described as “hell on Earth.” It has held several high-profile individuals, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, and disgraced crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was moved from the facility in March.
Mangione’s next court hearing is set for September.
The manifesto of the alleged killer was released in June and revealed his desire to “wack” Thompson to generate headlines, court documents revealed.
Sections of Magione’s scrawlings were shared as part of a filing from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, giving some insight into the 27-year-old’s thought process and hopes to prove a point about the medical industry.
“Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming,” Mangione wrote in a red book he used as a diary, which was shared alongside a confessional note he had on him at the time of his arrest titled, “To the feds.” He stated in the note that “it had to be done.”
“To the feds, I’ll keep this short because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial, some elementary social engineering, basic [computer aided design] and a lot of patience,” Mangione wrote.
Mangione wrote that he considered UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurance company in the U.S., as well as other health insurance providers, to be fair targets because they “literally extracts human life force for money.”
Some of the quoted excerpts revealed how Mangione allegedly weighed different options for the attack, and at one point, considered bombing UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters before settling on targeting the CEO.
Donations from Mangione’s supporters have topped $1.2 million so far in an online fundraiser for his defense.
