A jury in New Orleans has delivered a partial verdict in the staged accident scam murder trial, but without a conviction for the death of Cornelius Garrison.

The four-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana ended Thursday with a mixed set of outcomes that local media described as stunning observers. The jury deadlocked on the murder charges against Sean Alfortish and Leon "Chunky" Parker, prompting Judge Wendy Vitter to declare a mistrial on those counts. The two men had been on trial for the murder of Garrison in September 2020, shortly after Garrison pleaded guilty to participating in the staging of accidents involving trucks and other vehicles and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Staged accident schemes of this type typically target commercial trucks because carriers and their insurers often settle collision claims quickly rather than incur the cost of prolonged litigation, a dynamic that has made the freight sector a recurring focus of insurance fraud prosecutions. Cases like Operation Sideswipe illustrate why trucking companies and insurers have pushed for greater use of dashcams and other evidence-gathering tools to contest suspect claims.

Alfortish, regularly described as a disbarred attorney, was simultaneously convicted on several fraud charges. Those counts were part of the sweeping indictment that also charged attorneys Vanessa Motta — Alfortish's former romantic partner — and Jason Giles with central roles in the scam. Motta and Giles were convicted in March and remain jailed while awaiting sentencing. Neither was implicated in the murders, though testimony suggested Motta had some degree of awareness of a potential plot against Garrison.

Convictions on other charges

Alfortish was also convicted on two counts of obstruction and suborning perjury, while being acquitted on two similar charges. The convictions stemmed from his efforts to get Garrison out of the United States to avoid prosecution. The two acquittals involved allegations that he sought to have a fellow jail inmate lie on his behalf.

According to NOLA.com, the website of the New Orleans Times Picayune, jury deliberations stretched more than 30 hours across five days. Only near the end of that period did the jury pose its first question, which involved a map of the city.

NOLA.com reported that Alfortish's lawyer, speaking to the media after the verdicts were announced, said the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana "brought every resource of the federal government that they could bring. They brought five assistant U.S. attorneys onto the case. They had a phalanx of FBI agents. They tried in every way possible to convict Sean Alfortish of murdering a federal informant. And the jury did not find in their favor."

NOLA.com also reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Payne immediately requested a hearing for a new deal to retry Alfortish and Parker. Both men were returned to custody. Whether prosecutors retry the murder counts — a decision that typically rests with the Department of Justice after a mistrial — remains an open question.

Harris' testimony wasn't enough

The most damning testimony of the trial came from Ryan Harris, who had pleaded guilty for his involvement in the staged accidents and in Garrison's murder. According to local media reports, Harris testified that he recruited Parker for the shooting and drove Parker after Garrison was killed in the doorway of his mother's home. But that testimony apparently was not enough to bring the jury to 12 votes for conviction.

Parker had already pleaded guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy and faces a sentence of up to 60 years, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Earlier sentences on mail and wire fraud handed down to participants in what prosecutors dubbed "Operation Sideswipe" have been as light as home confinement, though some penalties have reached four years.

Few other cases have gone to trial

Before the trials of Motta and Giles, and then Alfortish, none of the more than 50 other indictments in the case for wire fraud, mail fraud or both had gone to trial — they were either resolved through guilty pleas or remain pending.

In a prepared statement released by the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District, the convictions and potential sentence lengths received the most attention, while the failure to reach a verdict on the most serious charges was addressed in a single sentence.

While the various convictions over the years have ensnared some people paid as little as $1,000 to ride in a car that targeted a truck for a collision, two other significant players in the scam also await sentencing after their sentencing dates were postponed numerous times.

Two other major sentencings still await

Danny Keating, an attorney, pleaded guilty in June 2021 to being a ringleader in the scam. Damian Lebeaud pleaded guilty in August 2020 to his own set of charges for involvement in Operation Sideswipe. Both men testified in the Motta/Giles case.

Keating's sentencing is now set for October 8. Lebeaud is scheduled to be sentenced December 3. Those sentencings, along with any retrial decision in the murder case, are the key proceedings still ahead for one of the largest staged-accident fraud prosecutions the region has seen.

Source: FreightWaves