Days after she was convicted of fraud for her role in a scheme involving phony accidents and lawsuits, Vanessa Motta has filed an appeal and requested a new trial. 

“While no trial is perfect, procedural issues at the March 2026 trial undermined the fairness of the proceedings and resulted in a miscarriage of justice,” Motta’s attorney, Sean Toomey, wrote in a new filing on Friday. 

Motta was convicted with attorney Jason Giles of the King Law Firm on March 20 of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, multiple mail fraud counts, and obstruction of justice. Motta and her law firm were also found guilty of witness tampering after the three-week trial. 

Among the arguments Toomey made was that prosecutors threatened during the trial to bring up the murder of Cornelius Garrison, a so-called “slammer” who had been cooperating with the FBI’s investigation into the scheme. He argued that threat “crippled Ms. Motta’s ability to defend herself.” 

“No defendant tried in the March 2026 trial was charged with the murder of Cornelius Garrison,” Toomey wrote. Motta’s fiancé, Sean Alfortish, will stand trial in Garrison’s death in August. He also is accused in the scheme. 

Toomey also argued that the jury received “improper” instruction on the witness tampering count, that Giles’ closing arguments were “prejudicial” against Motta and the government was allotted additional time and “focused extensively on Ms. Motta.” 

Diamanike Stalbert, a third defendant, was convicted of lying to federal agents about recruiting passengers for a staged wreck. She was acquitted of a wire fraud charge.

No other appeals or requests for new trials had been filed Friday afternoon.

U.S. District Judge Wendy Vitter sent Motta and Giles to jail after their convictions. Sentencing has been set for July. 

The massive federal case exposed multimillion-dollar staged accident fraud in which people would pack into cars, crash into 18-wheel trucks, and then file lawsuits to collect fraudulent settlements, sometimes for phantom injuries. 

The scheme was first exposed in 2019 by former WWL Louisiana investigator Mike Perlstein in his investigative series Highway Robbery.