Louisiana: Motta request rejected, murder trial nears

Soon after, Motta requested a new trial from U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Vitter, who had overseen her criminal trial. 

But last week, Judge Vitter denied the request.

Murder trial starts soon

In the parallel legal action going on in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the criminal trial of two men–including Motta’s romantic partner during much of the scam–will commence August 10 barring some unforeseen development.

And the sentencing of the one lawyer who had pleaded guilty in the scam has been delayed again. 

Motta, who is in custody, had requested a new trial on several grounds. They were all rejected by Judge Vitter.

The murder case against Sean Alfortish–the partner of Motta–and Leon Parker is related to one of the requests for a new trial made by Motta. 

The two men are accused of being involved in the murder of Cornelius Garrison in September 2020. Garrison had pleaded guilty in connection with the scam, which prosecutors ultimately dubbed “Operation Sideswipe,” and had agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation that ultimately caught up more than 60 people indicted mostly on mail and wire fraud charges. 

Besides Motta and Giles, and the upcoming Alfortish/Parker murder trial, no other defendant has gone to trial, either cutting a plea or are still in limbo.

Links between the two

Motta was never charged in connection with Garrison’s murder. But in her request for a new trial, Motta said the federal government had threatened “to introduce evidence of Motta’s involvement in Garrison’s murder.”

If Motta’s lawyers had taken any of several steps, according to her request for a new trial, “The Motta Defendants claim that the Government advised at trial that it would introduce evidence regarding Garrison’s murder, and Motta’s involvement in or acquiescence to it.” One of those steps would have been Motta taking the stand in her defense.

In rejecting the request, Judge Vitter said the government had said prior to the trial that it would not raise the Garrison murder unless the defense “opened the door” to that issue should it take any of those several steps. 

Garrison’s murder did come up during the trial, Judge Vitter wrote. But “the Court very clearly instructed the jury that none of the defendants on trial were charged with his murder and that it was not to be considered by the jury as evidence for the crimes charged against the defendants on trial.”

The other requests from Motta for a new trial were based on such disparate issues as what was in the jury instructions from the Court on the charge of witness tampering that Motta faced; that Giles’ closing arguments prejudiced the jury against Motta; the amount of time granted to the federal prosecutor for closing arguments was unfair to the defendants; and that there was an unresolved legal issue even when the case was sent to the jury.

All the arguments were rejected by Judge Vitter.

Sentencing likely delayed again

Sentencing for Motta and Giles was supposed to be in July. It is now set for September 8. But there is a motion to continue the sentencing process which if approved would push it out to a further date.

Meanwhile, the docket for the criminal trial of Alfortish and Parker is filling up as next month’s trial approaches.

The voir dire form in the case said the trial is expected to last three weeks. 

It asks if the potential jurors have any “family members or close friends” who work in a list of fields that might be related to the issues raised at trial: insurance, trucking or transportation, accounting, bookkeeping, banking/finance, legal, law enforcement and small business ownership.

Separately, the sentencing that the New Orleans legal community has been anticipating for more than five years has been delayed again. 

Danny Keating, an attorney who pleaded guilty in June 2021 of helping to arrange some of the staged accidents, has had his sentencing postponed too many times for most people to count. It was supposed to happen next month; now it’s delayed until October 8.

Meanwhile, the sentencing of Damian Labeaud, who was one of the leaders on the ground and was behind the wheel for several of the crashes (upon which he would exit the car and somebody else would substitute themselves in the driver’s seat), is still set for August 20. 

But his sentencings have also been delayed many times, usually at about the same time Keating’s were. Keating’s delay was agreed to just last week. 

More articles by John Kingston

Werner CEO Leathers: just the 3rd inning in driver attrition

C.H. Robinson earnings call shifts to nuclear verdict as key topic

Eyes on sub-70 OR, Old Dominion plans more capex