Ahead of a federal murder and fraud trial in New Orleans’ staged wrecks saga, lawyers for two men accused of slaying a witness are pushing back on a swath of evidence prosecutors are hoping to introduce involving a pair of years-old crimes: a 2005 cold case killing and a fraud scandal within a horse racing group.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Vitter has set an August trial date for the two defendants: Sean Alfortish, a disbarred Kenner attorney, and Leon “Chunky” Parker, whom Alfortish allegedly paid in 2020 to kill an FBI informant named Cornelius Garrison. Prosecutors say Alfortish had grown suspicious that Garrison was cooperating with the government.
The trial is an expected flashpoint in a sprawling federal probe into the scheme, in which local injury attorneys paid drivers to pack cars with passengers and ram them into big trucks, then would sue over the bogus wrecks. The investigation dubbed “Operation Sideswipe” has brought dozens of convictions, including of two injury lawyers in March…