As they await the near-guaranteed denial of her appeal to the Ninth Circuit, attorneys for convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes have made another legal maneuver that appears to give her another few weeks of freedom.
Holmes, who was granted an immediate stay of her April 27 prison-reporting date by virtue of a hail Mary appeal filed by her lawyers, was celebrating her second Mother's Day on Sunday at the beach in San Diego. The UK Daily Mail scored some paparazzi shots of Holmes carrying her newborn daughter Invicta and partner Billy Evans carrying two-year-old son William and some balloons down to the beach near their reported $9 million home (a rental).
As we learned recently via an odd and fairly softball profile of Holmes in the New York Times, she and Evans relocated from Woodside, where they'd been living until sometime last year — maybe until Holmes's November sentencing — to San Diego, which is where Evans's family lives. This is perhaps practical from a childcare standpoint, given that Evans is about to become a single dad, save for some miracle or untold legal strategy that grants Holmes more continued freedom.
As NBC Bay Area reports, Holmes's attorneys just filed a new motion in the state appeal of her fraud conviction, which gives the state 21 days to respond. Once the state responds, the lawyers have another 21 days to respond to that. So, this maneuver seems designed to give her another month or so with her newborn child before beginning what's to be an 11-year sentence.
Though will she really end up serving all of that? Half of that?
The privilege that has pervaded this entire case and trial has been pretty obvious, apart from the actual sentence by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila. Holmes's attorneys had tried to argue for no jail time at all, while she faced a maximum of 20 years for each of the four fraud counts on which she was convicted.
Judge Davila rejected Holmes's appeal of her conviction on April 10.
Holmes's co-defendant and co-conspirator at infamous blood-testing startup Theranos, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, was tried separately and sentenced in December to 13 years. Balwani also appealed his conviction to the Ninth Circuit, that appeal was denied, and he began serving his time not far from San Diego last month.
Top image: Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes alongside her boyfriend Billy Evans, walks back to her hotel following a hearing at the Robert E. Peckham U.S. Courthouse on March 17, 2023 in San Jose, California. Holmes appeared in court for a restitution hearing. (Photo by Philip Pacheco/Getty Images)
