Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A New Orleans man and a Chalmette woman accused of killing a government witness in 2020 have been indicted by a grand jury.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 35-year-old Ryan Harris and 39-year-old Jovanna Gardner were indicted on Friday, May 3, on charges including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit witness tampering through murder, witness tampering through murder, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness through murder and retaliation against a witness through murder.
According to the indictment, Harris, Gardner and Cornelius Garrison were allegedly involved in an insurance scheme starting in 2015, that involved staging car crashes on New Orleans’ interstates to file fraudulent claims against insurance companies.
Court documents state Harris is accused of being a “slammer,” defined by the indictment as a person who caused crashes by “intentionally colliding with 18-wheelers or other commercial vehicles.”
Gardner is accused of being a passenger in those staged collisions.
Garrison was accused of being a slammer and a “spotter,” defined in the indictment as a person who drove a getaway car after the staged crashes.
According to the indictment, sometimes spotters would “pretend to be eyewitnesses who would flag down the commercial vehicles after the staged collisions and allege that the commercial vehicles were at fault.”
In 2019, court documents state Garrison began “covertly cooperating with the federal government,” and the indictment alleges that Harris and Gardner killed Garrison to prevent him from continuing to help investigators expose the scheme.
Garrison was found shot to death in New Orleans on Sept. 22, 2020.
If convicted, Harris and Gardner face up to 20 years in prison and three years of supervised release for the conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud charge and life imprisonment, up to five years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy to commit witness tampering through murder, witness tampering through murder, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness through murder and retaliation against a witness through murder charges.
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