A heart-shaped observe was present in socks certain for Luigi Mangione

A court docket officer intercepted the handwritten observe, which urged the jailed defendant to “maintain your head held excessive” and “know there are literally thousands of individuals wishing you luck,” in accordance with a photograph in court docket papers filed by Mangione’s attorneys. Written on pink paper, the message was signed “Ok / Free Luigi.”

The attorneys mentioned they did not understand the observe was caught within the socks till the court docket officer discovered it Feb. 21.

The observe episode was disclosed amid written arguments over varied requests from the protection group. They embrace a bid for Mangione to get a laptop computer to evaluate authorized materials in jail whereas he awaits trial within the December taking pictures loss of life of Brian Thompson, 50.

Thompson was killed exterior a midtown resort the place UnitedHealthcare was holding an investor convention. Mangione, 26, has pleaded not responsible to New York costs together with homicide as an act of terrorism.

Objecting to the proposed laptop computer as a request for unmerited particular remedy, prosecutor Joel Seidemann wrote in a court docket doc that “particular remedy to the defendant’s profit was violated when made lodging for defendant’s trend wants over the last court docket look.”

Prosecutors and Mangione’s attorneys differ over how continuously jailed defendants change from uniforms to their very own clothes for routine court docket dates with no jury current. In any occasion, Mangione was allowed to vary into garments introduced by his authorized group for the Feb. 21 listening to.

The observe — plus a heart-shaped thank-you observe addressed to somebody known as “Joan” — had been hidden in a bit of cardboard on the middle of a brand new pair of argyle socks, in accordance with the protection and prosecution letters to the court docket.

“This was clearly inadvertent,” Mangione lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote. She mentioned the protection hadn’t seen the missives whereas hastening to get the garments to him earlier than court docket.

It’s not clear who wrote the notes or slipped them into the socks. The court docket paperwork didn’t say, prosecutors declined to elaborate and Mangione’s authorized group declined to remark.

Mangione donned the socks however later took them off “as a result of he felt that ‘they didn’t look good,’” in accordance with Seidemann’s letter.

Mangione appeared in court docket in loafers, his naked ankles shackled.

Whereas elected officers, UnitedHealthcare and others have decried Thompson’s killing, Mangione has attracted a cult following as a stand-in for frustrations over medical insurance protection denials and hefty medical payments. Dozens of his supporters confirmed up for the Feb. 21 listening to. One sported a inexperienced “Luigi” hat from the Mario Bros. online game franchise and lots of wore inexperienced, the Luigi character’s shade, as an emblem of solidarity.

Mangione himself wore a inexperienced sweater, “in keeping with what his sympathizers had been calling for supporters to put on,” Seidemann famous.

But one of many prosecutors additionally wore inexperienced, Friedman Agnifilo retorted, suggesting that prosecutors focus extra on “Mr. Mangione’s constitutional rights — and fewer on the colour of Mr. Mangione’s sweater.”

Along with the Manhattan case, Mangione faces federal costs in Thompson’s killing and state-level gun possession and different costs in Pennsylvania. He hasn’t entered any pleas in these circumstances.

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