Top investigator questioned a Cayce doctor’s first story about a shooting. Here’s why
A top Lexington County investigator questioned the story a Cayce doctor told on the night that a medical equipment salesman was shot in the doctor’s home, according to testimony Thursday in a Lexington County court room.
At the Lexington County Courthouse, Coroner Margaret Fisher took the stand Thursday morning in the trial of Adam Lazzarini, a former Lexington Medical Center surgeon who is accused of killing medical equipment salesman William Player Holland in October 2017. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter.
The wound appeared to be from a close contact gunshot, Fisher said. That was the first elements of the shooting that Fisher noticed when she arrived in the bedroom where Holland lay dead.
Lazzarini and Holland had spent the day together and ended up at the doctor’s house looking at handguns in an upstairs bedroom. The exact manner in which Holland wound up with a bullet through his chest has yet to become clear from testimony.
During Fisher’s testimony, the court heard a recording of her interview with Lazzarini on the night of the shooting. During that interview Lazzarini told her that Holland had shot himself in the chest.
Fisher replied that she was confused how Holland would shoot himself.
“That’s a very awkward position for a gun that size,” Fisher told Lazzarini during the interview. She went on the say that the angle of the shot doesn’t match up with Holland shooting himself.
The prosecution and defense have indicated that they will later being talking to the court about how Lazzarini actually shot Holland. The prosecution will argue that Lazzarini was criminally negligent while handling a gun. His defense team is arguing that the shooting was an accident and there’s reasonable doubt that Holland’s death rises to involuntary manslaughter.
Fisher never got a clear reply about how Holland supposedly shot himself from Lazzarini during the interview.
“I would never expect (Holland) to do that,” Lazzarini told her on the night of the shooting. “A lot of this is so confusing. I’m so confused.”
“I have no f****** idea what happened,” he told Fisher.
Testimony has revealed two versions of where Lazzarini was when Holland was shot. According to one investigator who took the stand Wednesday, Lazzarini said he was outside the bedroom when he heard the gunshot. Another investigator testified that Lazzarini said he was in the bedroom and had his back turned to Holland when the shot went off. He told these versions of the stories on the night of the shooting as investigators started the preliminary stages of their probe. In May 2018, police charged Lazzarini with shooting Holland.
Judge Debra McCaslin is presiding over the trial.
The case is being prosectued by Shawn Graham and Luke Pincelli of the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. Lazzarini is being defended by Greg Harris, Jack Swerling and Alissa Wilson.
The first session of Thursday court testimony ended about midday. Testimony by other investigators was schedule for the afternoon.
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 1:13 PM.