Federal witness testifies in New Orleans staged 18-wheeler crash fraud trial An inmate who pleaded guilty in a murder plot took the witness stand Monday in a federal trial involving staged 18-wheeler accidents in New Orleans, now in its third week. Personal injury attorneys Vanessa Motta and Jason Giles, along with their law firms and alleged co-conspirator Diaminike Stalbert, face multiple fraud-related charges. Prosecutors allege they participated in schemes involving intentional car crashes into 18-wheelers and fraudulent lawsuits. Ryan Harris, an inmate serving a 35-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a murder connected to the case, testified for over two hours about the operations of personal injury attorneys and the financial aspects of the schemes. Harris described how he began intentionally crashing cars into 18-wheelers around 2017, introduced to the scheme by Cornelius Garrison. He stated that Motta represented him early on and that he had dealings with the King Law Firm, where Jason Giles worked. Harris later operated independently, staging car-on-car crashes, recruiting other drivers, and directing their claims to Motta. He informed Motta of his decision to work separately, saying she advised him to ensure the crashes were severe to maximize insurance payouts. Harris recounted that Motta occasionally expressed frustration with some participants for mishandling crashes, telling her, “There’s going to be bad ones...anything could happen. It was all fraud.” He also mentioned that he continued submitting cases to Motta until 2023 and received kickback checks from her fiancé, Sean Alfortish, at the time. In early 2025, Harris pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting in the murder of Cornelius Garrison, who was shot and killed in 2020 during a probe into staged wrecks.#new_orleans #vanessa_motta #jason_giles #federal_witness #diaminike_stalbert
