Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing said he ‘had it coming,’ according to prosecutors
By MICHAEL R SISAK NEW YORK AP Six weeks before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel in December suspect Luigi Mangione mused about rebelling against the deadly greed fueled vitality insurance cartel and explained killing the executive conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming prosecutors revealed Wednesday The Manhattan district attorney s office quoted extensively from Mangione s handwritten diary highlighting his desire to kill an insurance honcho and praise for Ted Kaczynski the Unabomber as they fight to uphold his state murder charges They also cited a confession they say he penned To the feds in which he wrote that it had to be done Mangione s lawyers want the state circumstance thrown out arguing in court papers that those charges and a parallel federal death penalty development amount to double jeopardy They also want state terrorism charges dismissed have demanded for the federal situation to go first and say prosecutors should be barred from using evidence collected during Mangione s arrest including a mm handgun statements to police and the diary Manhattan prosecutors contend that there are no double jeopardy issues because neither incident has gone to trial and because the state and federal prosecutions involve different legal theories His lawyers say that has created a legal quagmire that makes it legally and logistically impossible to defend against them simultaneously The state charges which carry a maximum of life in prison allege that Mangione longed to intimidate or coerce a civilian population that is insurance employees and investors The federal charges allege that Mangione stalked an individual Thompson and do not involve terror accusations Mangione has pleaded not guilty in both cases No trial dates have been set Mangione s intentions were obvious from his acts but his writings serve to make those intentions explicit prosecutors reported in Wednesday s filing The writings which they sometimes described as a manifesto convey one clear message that the murder of Brian Thompson was intended to bring about revolutionary change to the healthcare industry They quoted excerpts in which Mangione discussed options for the attack such as bombing UnitedHealthcare s headquarters before deciding to target the company s investor conference in Manhattan He wrote about plans to wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention because it was targeted precise and doesn t pitfall innocents UnitedHealthcare the largest U S fitness insurer literally extracts human life force for money Mangione wrote envisioning the news headline Insurance CEO killed at annual investors conference The company has commented he was never a client Mangione is due back in state court June when Judge Gregory Carro is expected to rule on his request for dismissal His lawyers questioned Tuesday for his handcuffs and bulletproof vest to be removed during the hearing They called him a a model prisoner a model defendant and stated the safety measures would suggest to feasible jurors that he is dangerous Carro has not ruled on that Mangione s next federal court date is Dec a day after the one-year anniversary of Thompson s death Surveillance video demonstrated a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as he arrived for the conference Dec at the New York Hilton Midtown Police say delay deny and depose were scrawled on the ammunition mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying suggests Mangione was arrested Dec at a McDonald s in Altoona Pennsylvania miles about kilometers to the west and he is being held in a federal jail in Brooklyn Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has called the ambush a killing that was intended to evoke terror Related Articles Jury deliberations begin in Harvey Weinstein s sex crimes retrial Crews clean up -gallon fuel spill in Baltimore s harbor Supreme Court sides with Catholic Charities in religious-rights scenario over unemployment taxes Supreme Court blocks Mexico s B lawsuit alleging US gunmakers have fueled cartel violence Supreme Court makes it easier to claim reverse discrimination in employment in a occurrence from Ohio U S Attorney General Pam Bondi communicated in April that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for an act of political violence and a premeditated cold-blooded assassination that shocked America The killing and ensuing search for Mangione rattled the business district while galvanizing fitness insurance critics who rallied around him as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty bills Supporters have flocked to his court appearances and flooded him with mail Mangione demonstrated in his manifesto that he was a revolutionary anarchist who would usher in a better healthcare system by killing the CEO of one of the biggest U S companies prosecutors wrote This brutal cowardly murder was the mechanism that defendant chose to bring on that revolution
