New York man charged with cyberstalking widow of slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson

A New York state man was arrested Wednesday and charged with leaving threatening voicemails for the widow of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson hours after Mr Thompson was fatally shot on a Manhattan sidewalk in December.

The suspect, Shane Daley, left Paulette Thompson profanity-laced voicemails calling her husband a “f...... capitalist pig” and declaring he died because he was “profiting off the backs of poor Americans,” according to a criminal complaint in Albany federal court charging Daley with cyberstalking.

“This s... is gonna keep happening to you f...... p....,” Daley, 40, warned Paulette in one of three voicemails he left on her work phone in Minnesota the night of Dec. 4, according to an FBI affidavit.

“You all deserve to f...... die and burn in hell,” Daley said in another of those messages left for Paulette that same night, the affidavit said.

Brian Thompson was killed that morning as he was about to walk into an investor conference in a midtown Manhattan hotel. Luigi Mangione, 27, has been charged with his murder in both federal and state courts in New York.

On Dec. 7, Daley left a fourth voicemail on Paulette’s office phone, according to the affidavit.

Paulette is not identified by name in the affidavit.

But its description of “Victim-1” makes clear she was the messages’ recipient. The affidavit says that in one of the messages, Daley mockingly quoted a public statement Paulette Thompson issued in the wake of her husband’s assassination.

The transcriptions of the voicemails also feature sexist language and refer to the Thompsons’ children.

Mr Thompson’s slaying generated public sympathy for his family, but also led to an outpouring of anger at US health-care companies, including UnitedHealthcare, which is a division of UnitedHealth Group.

Daley’s calls were “more than callous and cold-hearted,” said Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York office.

“They were threatening and terrifying a family already suffering following the violent death of their loved one,” Mr Raia said.

The affidavit said investigators linked Daley to the messages because his personal cellphone number was recorded by Paulette’s company leaving the four voicemails and making five other calls to her work line.

The FBI and other law enforcement officers on July 30 stopped Daley near his home and executed a search warrant to seize his phone, the affidavit said.

The FBI agent who wrote the affidavit said that when he talked to Daley that day, he recognised his voice as the same one who left the threatening messages.

“When asked, Daley initially denied placing any threatening and harassing calls,” the agent wrote.

But when questioned about “the December 2024 time frame, Daley asserted that he had been drinking during that period and conceded that it was possible he made such calls,” the agent wrote.

“Daley also informed me that he was the sole user of the ... phone.”

Daley, who lives in the small Saratoga County town of Galway, appeared before a magistrate judge in Albany on Wednesday afternoon. He was released from custody after agreeing to several conditions, including GPS monitoring and refraining from possessing firearms or drinking alcohol, a spokesman for the US District Court for the Northern District of New York confirmed to NBC News later Wednesday. He is expected to appear in court again Thursday, the spokesman told NBC.

His defence attorney, Samuel Breslin, declined to comment on the case.

If convicted, Daley faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 ($A381,404), according to the Justice Department. Judges often deliver sentences far below the maximum penalty after taking into account factors including federal sentencing guidelines.

“Daley, as alleged, gleefully welcomed this tragedy and did all that he could to increase the Thompson family’s pain and suffering,” said John Sarcone, the acting US attorney for the Northern District of New York, in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

“My office and its partners will now do all that we can to hold him accountable for this vicious and outrageous conduct,” Mr Sarcone said.