Luigi Mangione is seeking a laptop in prison, but as he awaits trial for the murder of the CEO of United Healthcare, he is only for legal purposes, not communicating with anyone.
In a court filing published late Monday, Mangion's lawyers suggested that a laptop could be obtained that was constructed solely for viewing a vast amount of documents, videos and other materials in the case surrounding the shooting of Brian Thompson.
Similar limited maintenance clauses have been created for other defendants in the federal lockup where Mangion is being held.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has indicted Mangione on a rare New York murder charge as a terrorist act, but did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mangion's lawyers say prosecutors are raising eyebrows at laptop requests, and some witnesses are being threatened.
Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote that “there is no relation to any of the threats mentioned with Mangion.”
Mangion, 26, is accused of bombarding Thompson in December outside a Manhattan hotel where United Healthcare was about to hold an investor meeting.
Thompson, who had two children in high school at age 50, worked for UnitedHealthcare and its parent company for decades.
Mangion, an Ivy League computer science alumni from the Maryland real estate family, has pleaded not guilty to the New York state charges.
He also faces parallel federal cases with the potential death penalty. He has never filed a complaint against federal charges in Pennsylvania, state-level gun possession or other charges that were arrested a few days after Thompson's death.
Thompson's murder has warned the corporate world, with some health insurance companies rushing to work remotely or online shareholder meetings.
But at the same time, the incident led to Americans' complaints about health insurance companies.
Mangion's writings and words about bullets recovered from the scene reflect animus in health insurance companies and corporate America, authorities say.
Some people lionized the accused murderer, donated money to his defense, and even appeared in his courtroom.
Others, including elected officials, lamented the praise they cast for ideological violence and vigilantes justice.
Through his lawyers, Mangion issued a statement thanking its supporters.
If he gets a laptop, he will not be able to connect to the internet, run video games, or play movies or other entertainment, his lawyer said in his application Monday.
But that would force him to look into more than 15,000 pages of documents from his prison cell and thousands of hours of video where prosecutors were asked to gather and hand them over to his lawyers.
Otherwise, he can see the materials when he meets with his lawyer. But they say there's not enough time for him to do it and properly prepare his defense.
