Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old Ivy League grad arrested last week in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is receiving mail while in jail in Pennsylvania awaiting an extradition hearing.
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said Mangione has received 33 emails and six pieces of mail while in custody.
When asked by NBC News if Mangione was given the mail sent to him, a corrections official responded, yes.
Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 after a customer at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, saw him eating breakfast and noticed a resemblance to the person being sought by police in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
He is currently being held at State Correctional Institution Huntingdon in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Police say Mangione was found with a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson was arriving for his company's annual investor conference.
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Mangione, 26, remained jailed without bail Saturday in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with gun and forgery offenses. Altoona is about 230 miles west of New York City.
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Mangione's lawyer there, Thomas Dickey, has cautioned against prejudging the case and said that his client would contest his extradition to New York.
But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday that there were indications Mangione may now give up on that fight.
“We going to continue to press forward on parallel paths, and we'll be ready whether he is going to waive extradition or whether he is going to contest extradition,” Bragg said at an unrelated press conference in Times Square.
Hours after Mangione's arrest on Monday, Bragg's office filed paperwork charging him with five counts, including intentional murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she's prepared to ask her Pennsylvania counterpart, Gov. Josh Shapiro, to intervene and issue a governor's warrant requiring Mangione's extradition if he does not agree to be moved voluntarily.
