Sean Alfortish(left) and Vanessa Motta
NEW ORLEANS — A federal jury has convicted a disbarred attorney on fraud charges tied to a yearslong staged-wreck scheme.
But the jury failed to reach verdicts on accusations Sean Alfortish, who also is a former Kenner magistrate judge, had arranged the killing of an FBI cooperator, prompting a mistrial on the murder related counts.
After more than 30 hours of deliberations over five days, jurors found Alfortish guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud for his role in the scheme, which prosecutors said used intentionally caused crashes involving 18-wheelers to generate fraudulent injury claims and insurance settlements.
But the jury could not unanimously decide five murder-related charges against Alfortish and co-defendant Leon “Chunky” Parker in the 2020 shooting death of Cornelius Garrison III, a participant in the staged-crash operation who had begun cooperating with the FBI.
Chief U.S. District Judge Wendy Vitter declared a mistrial on those counts. Prosecutors immediately asked the court to set a hearing to schedule a new trial.
The jury received the case August 28 after a nearly four-week trial. By Wednesday, jurors reported they were having trouble reaching consensus on at least some charges. Vitter then issued an Allen charge, commonly called a “dynamite charge,” directing jurors to continue deliberations in an effort to reach a verdict.
The mixed verdict amounted to a major victory for prosecutors in their effort to establish Alfortish directed the sprawling fraud operation.
Garrison, known in the scheme as a “slammer,” had participated in staged wrecks for years before cooperating with the FBI’s Operation Sideswipe investigation. He was shot 10 times in the entryway of his mother’s Gentilly home in September 2020, four days after a federal indictment confirmed his cooperation.
Jurors did not reach verdicts on charges against Alfortish and Parker that included conspiracy to commit witness tampering through murder, witness tampering through murder, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness through murder, retaliation against a witness through murder and causing death through the use of a firearm.
The exact combination of counts varied by defendant, but the deadlock left both men without either convictions or acquittals on the central allegations involving Garrison’s death.
Parker previously pleaded guilty to wire-fraud charges arising from the staged-wreck investigation. The jury reached no verdict on the murder allegations against him.
The fraud convictions followed testimony that Alfortish and his then-fiancée, attorney Vanessa Motta, used a network of drivers, passengers, recruiters and medical providers to exploit crashes with commercial trucks.
Prosecutors said the participants would intentionally sideswipe tractor-trailers, then present passengers as injured drivers or victims. The passengers would be directed to lawyers and medical providers, leading to lawsuits and large settlements against trucking companies and insurers.
The government said Alfortish, who had been disbarred after an earlier fraud conviction, continued to profit by referring cases to Motta’s law practice and using related businesses to collect payments and finance medical procedures. Financial records and witness testimony placed the enterprise at the center of a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme during the late 2010s.
Motta was convicted in March of fraud-related offenses stemming from the staged-wreck investigation. She was not charged in Garrison’s killing.
Federal authorities have charged 63 people in the broader staged-wreck investigation, and more than 50 have pleaded guilty.
The murder case relied heavily on Ryan “Red” Harris, a staged-wreck participant who pleaded guilty to planning Garrison’s killing and testified that Alfortish ordered the hit and Parker pulled the trigger.
Harris testified he arranged meetings between Alfortish and Parker, bought burner phones, scouted Garrison’s home and helped recruit his then-girlfriend, Jovanna Gardner, to lure Garrison outside. Harris said Parker later told him he had killed Garrison and had been paid by Alfortish.
But the government produced no murder weapon, physical evidence or direct electronic communication showing that Alfortish ordered Garrison killed. An FBI agent also acknowledged location evidence did not directly establish Alfortish, Parker and Harris were all present at the same alleged planning meeting.
Defense lawyers argued Harris, who hopes to receive a reduced sentence for cooperation, had the strongest motive to blame others for a crime in which he admitted participating. Parker’s lawyers highlighted Harris’ prior lies to investigators, his involvement in destroying evidence and firearms recovered from locations associated with him.
Gardner testified Harris told her after the shooting he had killed Garrison, though she also said she had seen Parker and Harris together before the killing.
Alfortish remains subject to sentencing on the fraud convictions. The jury acquitted him of separate allegations involving obstruction of justice and subornation of perjury connected to claims he tried to induce a jailed man to provide false testimony.
Vitter ordered both Alfortish and Parker held pending sentencing and a possible retrial, WDSU reported.
The government has indicated it intends to retry both men on the unresolved murder-related charges.
