Luigi Mangione, who allegedly killed a UnitedHealthcare executive last year, officially accepted almost $300,000 in donations for his legal defense on Monday.
In a statement issued to The Independent, the December 4 Legal Committee said Mangione, 26, will accept $292,000 in donations that the group raised via GiveSendGo. The committee said it would continue to gather funds for Mangione, who is due in a New York state court on February 21.
On the state level, Mangione is charged in New York with first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, second-degree murder as an act of terrorism, and criminal possession of a weapon. He is facing firearm charges in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested days after Brian Thompson’s shooting death in New York.
On the federal level, Mangione is charged in New York with murder through the use of a firearm, stalking, and a firearms offense.
Mangione was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after Thompson was shot near a Hilton hotel in Manhattan, New York, on December 4. Thompson, UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, was attending his company’s annual investor meeting when he was killed.
Authorities said fingerprints recovered from the water bottle and a KIND snack bar matched Mangione’s prints.
In addition to allegedly having a gun with a silencer and fake IDs, Mangione reportedly also had a 262-word “manifesto” that decried the healthcare industry as “parasites.” Shortly after Mangione’s arrest, New York officials held a press coverage in which they hinted at the motive in Thompson’s murder. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione, a data engineer with a master’s from the University of Pennsylvania, “has some ill will towards corporate America.”
