GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Houma attorney Matthew Ory tried everything in his power to convince his client, former LSU star wide receiver Kyren Lacy, that an upcoming grand jury hearing last April 14 in Thibodaux would exonerate him, and he would be on an NFL team in a matter of weeks.
The New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings were interested with the 2025 NFL Draft coming up that April 24-26 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
“I had talked to the Saints. I had talked to Vikings,” Ory said in an interview with Martin Folse on HTV Channel 10 in Houma on Friday that has since exploded nationally. “There were teams reaching out to learn about this matter, that really liked him.”
Lacy, 24 and a fifth-year senior who played his first two seasons at Louisiana-Lafayette out of Thibodaux High, was a projected third or fourth round draft choice and NFL-directed Senior Bowl invitee. He led LSU in receptions (58), receiving yards (866) and touchdown catches (9) in 2024. His 25-yard TD catch in overtime beat No. 8 Ole Miss, 29-26, last season.
But the previous Jan. 12, Louisiana State Police arrested him on felony charges of negligent homicide, hit-and-run and reckless driving for allegedly causing an accident on Dec. 17, 2024, in Lafourche Parish near his hometown of Thibodaux that killed former U.S. Marine Herman Hall, 77. It took a $151,000 bond to release Lacy from jail. Remember that word, “allegedly.”
Ory, armed with the Lafouche Parish District Attorney office’s investigation of the accident that shot holes in the State Police’s report, was fully expecting a slam dunk exoneration of his client on April 14 before the grand jury. Ory shared his case that was to be heard at that grand jury hearing, including a potentially incriminating video of a State Police Troop C officer allegedly manufacturing Lacy’s role in the crash while a witness clearly pointed to another driver.
“This (the charges against Lacy) never survives a grand jury,” Ory said in the interview. “Never. Never ever survives a grand jury.”
The last line of the Lafourche Parish District Attorney office’s report says, “The evidence submitted in this crash report does not support that Kyren Lacy’s actions were the cause of the crash that happened approximately 72 yards in front of him.”
Lacy focused less on that than on social media and many media members’ narrative of the crash that were fueled by the State Police report that only now is under serious question.
“We were 48 hours from this report getting to the grand jury,” Ory said.
But on Saturday night, April 12, in Houston, Lacy committed suicide by shooting himself after visiting family there.
“Kyren Lacy went to Houston that Friday with his mind made,” Ory said Friday and grew emotional. “He was suffering. His mind was made. He wanted the keys to his vehicle (from his family) to, I don’t know how to say this.”
“To take his life?,” Folse asked.
“Yes,” said Ory, who has been in close contact with Lacy’s family since January of 2025 when he began representing Lacy.
“It was either, ‘You give me the keys, and I do this on my own accord, or this is going to go down right here, right now,'” Ory said.
Lacy then fired a gun into the ground.
KYREN LACY FOUND DEAD IN HOUSTON
“That’s how he got his keys,” Ory said. “The shot was fired into the ground to let them know he wanted his keys. What are you going to do? You’re going to watch it go down? Or you’re going to give him his keys? His mind was made. You know the rest of the story.”
A Lacy family member did call police at this point with a description of his vehicle. And a Houston Police car followed him at normal speed. Lacy’s family later said they believe Lacy noticed the car, panicked with the grand jury date on Monday, and shot himself. Lacy’s family had apparently dealt with erratic behavior with Kyren Lacy previously.
“Young parents, start talking to your kids at a very early age and make sure they are confident and comfortable confiding in you,” Kyren Lacy’s father Kenny Lacy posted on Facebook on Sunday, April 13. “Don’t be cool with, ‘I’m all right.’ Or, ‘I’m good,’ when you know deep down something isn’t right. Mental health is real, and for the most part, it’s invisible. Don’t ignore the signs, even if they may seem small. Our lives have changed forever, and this will never be OK. This will never get easier, but we’ll learn to live with it. Check on your kids mental health!”
Ory shared his opinion on Lacy’s death on Friday.
“Social media killed him,” he said. “Killed him. All those tough guys behind the computer. They’re kids (young people like Lacy). They don’t know anything else, other than those devices. They can’t get away from them. And they believe what these people say. It doesn’t matter what I showed you today. There are going to be people who talk horribly about him. He was already prosecuted in his own mind.”
Ory said Lacy’s mindset was “horrible,” concerning the charges when he took over the case.
This Kyren Lacy stuff really tears me up. It has never sat right with me. RIP 2.
— Alondra Villarreal (@alovillarreal__) October 3, 2025
“Look, man, you’ve got a young kid who’s getting assassinated on social media,” he said. “He begged me, begged me to help him.”
Ory and the Lafourche Parish District Attorney’s office report helped Lacy’s cause. The District Attorney’s report said that Lacy’s Dodge Charger was 72 yards behind the crash and not involved. He did leave the scene and passed vehicles in a no passing zone, but he did not cause the wreck, the District Attorney’s office report concluded.
Lacy was headed to a workout at a facility in Schriever, near his Thibodaux hometown.
“At the time of impact, he was 72.6 yards behind the vehicles,” Ory said. “This is not my expert. This is the investigation of the Lafourche Parish District Attorney’s office.”
Here is text from an excerpt of the above video featuring a State Police trooper interviewing an eyewitness to the crash that Lacy was not involved in, according to the Lafourche Parish District Attorney’s office. But at the time State Police were looking for a green Dodge Charger that they gleaned belonged to Lacy:
STATE TROOPER: “Just right here, write exactly what you saw, make sure to include where you were, Highway 20. Just make sure you add in there that you had to slam on your brakes to avoid that Charger, and the brakes locked up to avoid that Charger.”
DRIVER: “That lady in the back of me, she caused that wreck. She rode right into the back of me.”
TROOPER: “But the Charger was coming right at you, correct? That’s why you had to slam on your brakes. So, yeah, make sure you include that. That’s very important, because we’re trying to locate this Charger right now. So, include that in the statement. And I’ll read it over.”
Ory grew incredulous with Folse after that video was shown.
“I can’t make this up. This is what people just don’t get to see. You saw video. You just saw a statement where somebody (the state trooper) tells them what to say. He (the witness) tells him that’s not what happened! They still give that statement,” Ory shouted.
He added that that witness did not sign his post-crash statement that the trooper tried to lead.
Ory also said the woman that the above witness said caused the wreck was issued a ticket for driving too close to a vehicle in front of her involved in the wreck.
“The ticket was taken away,” Ory said.
He also said there was a passenger in Lacy’s car whom State Police never interviewed.
LOUISIANA STATE POLICE UNDER QUESTION
“They knew this,” he said. “They had video footage of this individual getting out of the car. Why didn’t you ascertain his identity? Why would you not want to hear the person with one of the best views of this incident? Why would you not simply bring him in for questioning? This is not mine. I didn’t generate this. I didn’t manipulate this. I didn’t alter it. And I didn’t manufacture it. I received it from the District Attorney’s office.”
Louisiana State Police, meanwhile, are sticking to their original story that said Lacy caused the accident. It released the following statement Saturday to media:
“Following the crash, Louisiana State Police conducted a detailed investigation with the assistance of crash reconstruction experts and with all available information at the time. Investigative findings revealed that Mr. Lacy’s reckless driving while approaching oncoming traffic led to the events of the crash. The findings were presented to the 17th Judicial District Court, which approved an arrest warrant based on the evidence collected. As with all investigations leading to arrest, the subjects of the investigation are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. No one disputes that he was behind the crash scene. His swerving, passing cars and reckless operation caused the series of crash events.”
Yet, State Police have not explained how a car 72 yards behind a wreck can cause the wreck.
Ory still can’t believe the State Police version.
“I received the report from the District Attorney’s office. And I compared it to the report and the investigation by State Police. We have a vast difference. And it is drastic. It is drastic,” he said. “The big narrative (from State Police) was that Kyren was actively passing at the time of this accident. We know now that is 100 percent false. In the conclusion of the DA’s report, they state that State Police said that Kyren was actively passing vehicles when the crash occurred, which is incorrect. He did pass four vehicles, but that was before the crash. And now we know, according to this data, that was 72.6 yards away.”
Before Lacy died, the Lafourche Parish District Attorney’s office hadn’t accepted formal charges by State Police against Lacy.
“To this day, formal charges were never accepted,” Ory said. “There was no criminal proceeding. He never got to tell the world his version. We just did that.”
But apparently, Ory and no one could convince Lacy that he likely would soon be exonerated. In Ory’s mind, Lacy was listening to the social media noise too much.
“Kyren Lacy is going to change the way things are done,” Ory said. “He’s going to make people think twice about what they say before they say it. ‘Hold on. Maybe we’ve got to look at a few other things here. Maybe, let’s not jump to conclusions.’ Maybe somebody else is saved from the same exact thing. Maybe thousands.”
Ory will always keep a picture of Lacy that his family gave him at the funeral. He looks at that now and still hears his voice.
“Mr. Matt, you got me dog?,” Lacy used to ask Ory.
“Kyren, I promise you, I got you, dog,” Ory would answer.
“I wrote on the back of the picture, ‘I got you dog,'” Ory said. “Whatever that’s worth, I don’t know. I hope that he’s looking down and has a little peace, because he didn’t go out with peace.”
Be the first to comment