Luigi Mangione’s job in federal lockup is cleansing showers — and he’s a one-man welcoming committee, in keeping with a fellow jailbird.
When Michael Daddea arrived on the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Heart in Sundown Park, a guard informed him he could be housed in the identical unit because the accused murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, he revealed in a video posted to X.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, he’s being a wise ass’. . . I look out the cell, Luigi is standing there and he’s like, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ Like, super nice. Introduced himself to me first thing. I’ve literally – I’ve been in the unit for 10 minutes,” Daddea, 29, recalled within the June 7 clip, which amassed over 80,000 views earlier than it was deleted from his profile this week.
Daddea was slapped with federal fees in February for allegedly 3D-printing greater than 25 untraceable “ghost guns” – not not like the firearm Mangione, 27, is accused of utilizing to kill Thompson, 50, on a Midtown sidewalk on Dec. 4.
The Tampa native solely spent two nights within the federal lockup’s 4G unit earlier than making $250,000 bail at his March 7 arraignment, in keeping with the Brooklyn US Legal professional’s workplace.
However he claims he, a fellow inmate nicknamed “V,” and Mangione wasted no time changing into buddies.
“I go up and I go to shake Luigi’s hand, I’m like, ‘Yo, it’s an honor to meet you.’ . . . He turns around and he goes to me, ‘You two are the first kids that came in here who knew who I was or even cared about it,’” Daddea recalled.
“I guess he must have seen another white kid and he was like, ‘Finally,’” Daddea theorized within the clip.
Mangione – who has been a “model prisoner” in his over 175 days of pre-trial detention, in keeping with his legal professionals – is a “collie,” which is a time period used to discuss with inmates with jail jobs, Daddea defined within the clip.
“So a collie could be like a unit boss that tells you what cell you’re going to. Luigi just happened to be a collie that cleans the showers,” he stated, including that different “collie” jobs embody making ready meals and cleansing meals trays.
When Mangione is just not scrubbing the washrooms or working “laps around the unit,” he scours native information for his identify, Daddea stated.
“Luigi gets the NewYork newspaper everyday . . . he would have me help look through some to see if there’s articles about him [sic],” he wrote within the remark part of the X video.
Daddea stated he and Mangione, each Catholics, “did Ash Wednesday,” when a priest got here in and put the charcoal crosses on their foreheads on March 5, and ate each meal collectively.
“So we sat together. Luigi would grab his sh-t and come sit with us every day. We would just eat, bulls–t,” he stated.
Daddea declined to remark when reached by The Publish.
In an digital communication despatched from jail on June 3, Mangione listed issues he was grateful for – amongst them, the Bureau of Prisons’ music catalog, “Chicken Thursdays and Sweet Baby Ray’s bbq sauce,” and the hundreds of books and letters folks have mailed him.
He wrote that his cellmate, J, “tolerates the clutter of all my papers, shares his unique wisdom, and doesn’t hesitate to humble me when I need it,” and that the MDC employees and correctional officers “are nothing like what ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ or ‘The Stanford Prison Experiment’ had me to believe” – regardless of “the occasional minor dissent.”
Mangione additionally thanked those that have donated to his commissary account, noting that their contributions have purchased him a pill, songs, stamps, hygiene merchandise, barbecue sauce, Goya Sazón flavoring, peanut butter and tuna packets.
Mangione has pleaded not responsible to first-degree homicide.
