By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Someone tucked a heart-shaped note of encouragement into socks packed for Luigi Mangione to wear to court recently in the case surrounding the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, prosecutors said in a court document released on Wednesday.
A court officer intercepted the note, which urged the accused killer to “know there are thousands of people wishing you luck,” Manhattan prosecutors wrote in responding to recent requests from Mangione’s lawyers. They include a bid for him to get a laptop to review legal material in his cell while he awaits trial in the December shooting of Brian Thompson. Mangione, 26, has pleaded not guilty.
A message seeking comment on prosecutors’ filing was sent to Mangione’s attorneys.
Objecting to the proposed laptop as a request for unmerited special treatment, prosecutor Joel Seidemann wrote “special treatment to the defendant’s benefit was violated when (prosecutors) made accommodations for defendant’s fashion needs during the last court appearance.”
Most jailed defendants wear jail uniforms at routine court dates like the Feb. 21 date, the prosecutor explained. Mangione, however, was allowed to change into clothes brought by his legal team.
The note — plus another heart-shaped message addressed to someone called “Joan” — was hidden in a piece of cardboard at the center of a new pair of Argyle socks, Seidemann wrote. It’s not clear who wrote the note or slipped it into the socks.
Mangione donned the socks but later took them off “because he felt that ‘they did not look good,’” according to Seidemann.
Mangione appeared in court in loafers without socks, his feet shackled at the ankles.
Thompson, 50, was shot in December outside a Manhattan hotel where UnitedHealthcare was about to hold an investor conference.
In addition to the Manhattan case, Mangione faces federal charges in Thompson’s killing and state-level gun possession and other charges in Pennsylvania. He hasn’t entered any pleas in those cases.
Mangione’s writings and words on bullets recovered from the scene reflected animus toward health insurers and corporate America, authorities have said. The case has made him something of a cult celebrity to people frustrated with corporate health insurers. Others, including elected officials, decry what they see as glorifying violence and vigilantism.