Cayce doctor’s manslaughter trial takes unexpected twist, as defense asks judge to rule
The defense attorneys for a Cayce doctor accused of fatally shooting a man asked the judge, not the jury, to render a verdict in his manslaughter trial Wednesday afternoon.
Day seven in the trial of Adam Lazzarini, a former Lexington Medical Center surgeon accused of shooting 30-year-old William Player Holland, ended after the request by his defense. Judge Debra McCaslin said she was going to consider the defense’s request and make a decision Thursday morning. She may still leave the verdict decision in the jury’s hands, or she may grant the defense’s request and issue a verdict of her own.
Trial rules allow the judge to render a verdict instead of the jury if a compelling reason can be given for the judge to do so.
“This is a horrible accident,” Lazzarini’s attorney Greg Harris told the judge of the shooting. “That’s not my testimony. Those were the state witnesses.”
Harris argued that the prosecution’s own witnesses supported that the shooting was a tragic accident and not criminally negligent.
Prosecutors’ own witnesses testified that Lazzarini was “meticulous” in the way he kept his guns, Harris said. Harris said this amounted to investigators saying Lazzarini was not negligent and reckless.
Harris said he couldn’t believe that the pathologist based her conclusion of homicide partially based on a video recording of a 5-year-old child, Lazzarini’s daughter.
Harris argued to the judge that witnesses testified to the shooting being an “accident” many times.
Testimony showed the weapon “was a malfunctioning gun,” Harris said, saying that in other states two police agencies of thousands of officers stopped using the gun after discovering malfunctions.
Testimony did not show that Lazzarini was drunk on the day of the shooting, Harris argued.
“The state has not presented any evidence of indifference, consequences of action ... or criminal negligence,” Harris said.
The events leading up to Holland’s shooting had been established in testimony. Lazzarini and Holland spent Oct. 9, 2017, together in Columbia and Cayce after a trip to Georgia to see a new medical operation. When the surgery was canceled, the pair returned to Columbia. Between 7 and 8 p.m., the two were at Lazzarini’s house looking at some of his handguns in an upstairs bedroom. That’s when Holland was shot.
Prosecutor Shawn Graham of the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office tried to push back against Harris’ arguments to the judge. Graham said that the jury should be left to decide what the testimony in the trial showed and not the judge.
Graham and his partner Luke Pincelli had witnesses testify that Lazzarini told them three different versions of the shooting story. One of those witnesses told the juror that Lazzarini said, “I killed my best friend.” In a video shown to the jury, Lazzarini’s daughter said she was in the room when her father had the gun in his hand and shot Holland. A blood splatter expert testified that it was “possible but not probable” that Holland shot himself.
The defense did not call anyone to the stand but tried to break down the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses or get them to admit to circumstances of the shooting that were favorable to Lazzarini. Sowing reasonable doubt that the shooting rose to the specifics of involuntary manslaughter was crucial to the defense’s strategy.
Lazzarini still faces a pending civil suit by Holland’s parents.
Check back for the latest updates.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 4:33 PM.