Law&Crime Sidebar - Florida TikToker Gunned Down by ‘Toxic’ Boyfriend: Police

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

A young, vibrant TikTok influencer is dead, allegedly at the hands of her own boyfriend. Maurice "Girlalala" Harrison, 21, was shot and killed in Florida, and her boyfriend, Shanoyd Whyte Jr., is now behind bars facing a first-degree murder charge. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber is joined by criminal defense attorney John Day to discuss the shocking details revealed in the arrest affidavit and the crucial camera footage that led to the arrest.GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/e73c61a7b PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: You’re 30 seconds away from being debt free with PDS Debt. Get your free assessment and find the best option for you at https://PDSDebt.com/sidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I look some of the fuck, girl la-lal-la, la. Mm-hmm. Please, I need help. A young, vibrant TikTok influencer is dead, allegedly at the hands of her own boyfriend. And now he's behind bars as her family and friends are preparing to hold memorial service. They want to spread the word about the dangers of domestic violence.

We are going to get into everything in this case. The surveillance footage and the audio from the 911 call, the suspect allegedly made to police on that fateful night that gives us new insight into this purported crime. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. On Friday, November 14th, 21-year-old Maurice Harrison was gunned down in Lauderdale, Lakes, Florida.

Now, Harrison, a transgender woman who used the name Girl La La La, or just La, on social media, had thousands of followers. Her videos on TikTok and Instagram, they not only included these glam shots of elaborate wigs and nails, but also of her day-to-day life. Often featured in Lala's videos was her boyfriend of several years. We're talking about 25-year-old Shenoid White Jr. The former defensive lineman on the football team at Bethune-Cookman University, sometimes referred to online as Shaba or Wig Snack. And while some of the videos showed the two of them in this, you know, loving relationship, there were several posts where Lala talked about getting into physical fights with White. She posted videos and photos at one point showing bruises, cuts, a swollen eye.

We're going to get back to that in a minute. But based on social media posts, we know that Lala tried to play it off as no big deal in some of the posts, joking about how White would react to behavior that he didn't like. There were other posts that showed her acting more fearful, posting things like, I'm scared. And in some of his own videos, White seemed frustrated that a lot of his followers were only paying attention to him because he was dating Lala. Check this out.

If you follow me, right? If you follow me and you watch my TikTok only because I date Lala, get on my page. Get off my page. I don't want nobody who fuck me because you're with them. I don't want people who fuck me because they fuck with me. Now, according to Broward County authorities, things came to ahead on November 14th just before 7 p.m. when White allegedly shot Lala multiple times killing her. Investigators say a video provided them with critical evidence that led to White.

So to talk about what that video apparently showed, what is next for the alleged killer, what evidence is going to be presented in this case. I want to welcome on a criminal defense attorney whose first time in studio, John Day. John, thanks for so much for taking the time to come on here. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. It's a really sad story. Familiar story when you talk about alleged domestic violence.

year because it's getting a lot of attention from people who knew Lala had been observing this relationship with White, at least virtually for years. A person allegedly killing their partner, it's unfortunate, but it's something we see time and time again, right? Is there a common pattern you see? We see it time and time again because it is the most dangerous type of domestic violence situation. This is the kind of situation you see, sadly, where one partner, there's some clues, there's some evidence ahead of time that indicates there's a violent relationship, there's something that eventually could happen. But in this case, sadly, the clues pointed in the direction of one of those people getting murdered and the police have the partner

as the suspect. So domestic violence is so dangerous, especially when there are hints that there's violence in the relationship and that no one has intervened, no one stepped in, there's been no way to stop it, and it leads to tragedy. Do you see a common motive or common theme? It's, you know, it's anger, it's jealousy, it's things that bubble up in relationships, and most people can deal with them on a level that's appropriate. In this case, sadly, there was no stopping this train, this train wreck of a domestic violence situation, and it ended in death. But there's so many resources available, and the sad thing is that a lot of people just don't take advantage of that.

And I want to be clear about the law here, whether or not this is first-degree murder. So as we go through it, let's talk about this. I want to talk about this key piece of evidence that Broward County investigators got their hands on. It is a camera on a Tesla that appears to have captured the moments right after White allegedly fired a gun at Lala. So the Tesla was parked on Northwest 37th Street and a Chevrolet Malibu pulled up and parked nearby. Now, White can allegedly be seen getting out of the driver's seat, walking to the passenger side, holding something in his hand. The footage is grainy, but authorities posit that that was a gun. and Lala can arguably be seen leaning out of the passenger side door, and White appears to push her back into the car, setting her upright in the seat.

Now, the arrest affidavit states that White pulled Lala up by her hair. The affidavit reads, quote, White's vehicle pulled into the driveway, and both doors opened momentarily before closing. The driver's door then reopened, and a black male later identified as White was seen removing what appeared to be a firearm from his waistband with his right hand and firing into the vehicle. toward the front passenger seat where the victim was seated. A visible muzzle flash was captured on the video. The front passenger door then opened, and the victim was observed slumped over. Immediately afterward, White walked around the vehicle holding what appeared to be a black firearm, then pulled the victim upright by her hair.

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Now the Warren states that when emergency crews arrived, this victim was sitting in a pool of blood. And again, authority say she was shot multiple times. How often do you have video footage of an alleged crime like this? Video footage of an alleged murder like this? You know what we're seeing is more and more, not just surveillance video, homes and businesses, but cars that actually have the video recording capability like Tesla's, and it's a brand new area. But it does capture, there have been a number of cases where the Tesla video has been used in court to establish what prosecutors need. And it's remarkable. In this case,

we had so much evidence, so much video taken by a vehicle that ultimately is going to be used by the prosecution. Is there any way a defense attorney can make sure that evidence doesn't make its way into trials? Is there a chain of custody issues, anything like that? They can always try. They can always try to keep it out. But at the end of the day, this is, I mean, you know, the video doesn't lie. That's what prosecutors love about that. And when you're getting cards that are actually recording crimes as they happen, I mean, that's gold for a prosecutor.

We're still in the beginning stages of this, but it does make me wonder if you have something that clear, right? Would a defense attorney say, listen, we can't argue what it shows, but we can argue the context of it. In other words, maybe it's not first-degree murder. Maybe it's manslaughter. it's something. Maybe it's heat of passion. Am I totally outside the realm of thinking that could be a possibility? No, that's exactly right. And that's what the defense has to do. They have to try to knock down a first degree. Remember, first degree, premeditation can take place in an instant, essentially. Do you explain that? Because people always think it's planning and, you know, there's a setup and it takes

hours and days. Most jurisdictions allow first degree premeditation can be instantaneous. It can be just a very short amount of time that leads to a decision to commit that murder. Of course, defense attorneys want to knock that down as much as they can, down to manslaughter if possible. And that's they're going to be using this video to argue the polar opposite of what the prosecution says. But premeditation usually means it can be a split-second decision ahead of time to differentiate it from second-degree murder. The number of shots that are fired, if you're talking about a victim like Lala, who was shot multiple times, is that, you know, from the prosecution's point of view, I could see how they could be beneficial, but I also wonder if it could be used by the defense, the number of shots fired, the amount of times she was shot.

What does that tell you? Well, the defense is going to be saying this is more of a heat of passion type crime. This is not a premeditated crime. This is something that was generated by some triggering effect. There was something that caused this to happen that knocks it down from first degree. So they've got their work cut out for them trying to establish for the defense that this was not a planned homicide, that this was something that happened instantaneously if they can actually, if the defense, if the prosecution can actually pinpoint that this is the person who shot the poor victim.

And it's really graphic, but how many times at a criminal trial, do you have a medical examiner come in and talk about the trajectory of the shots and where the shots landed and the impact they had on the body? That has an effect on a jury, right? When you have to, because prosecutors have to establish a death occurred. But I think it's very important defense attorneys might not love this evidence where the jury is told in explicit detail where those bullets ended up, right, and caused the death. Well, remember, jurors have seen all the CSI shows, all the medical investigation shows. they know that there's going to be an expert who comes in there and says, and supposedly it's an expert who's not testifying for one side or the other,

even though it's a prosecution expert. And jurors like these experts because they're not seen as owned by one side or the other. They're doing very clinical testimony. They're giving, they've got charts, they've got photographs, they've got even sometimes videos. And so the medical examiner testimony is something that jurors love because it helps them put the pieces together. I want to go to what the affidavit says about White because they say that he was seen pacing back and forth near the car before calling 9-1-1. We have the audio, okay? The audio from that phone call may give us an idea of White's mindset and may give us an idea of how both sides will use this

to their advantage. No. 9-1-1-1. Fucking please. Hello, please. Please, I need help. 9-1-1-1. What is the address to your emergency? Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Yes, I don't know the address, bro. Just check. Just check, please. Okay, are you at a house, apartment, or business? Yeah, I'm at a house. Okay, tell me exactly what happened. Some exactly what happened. Please.

Okay, we have a call, answering for service. Who is... Okay, all right, thank you. Stay on the line with me. Hello. Yeah, so it's 911. Stay on the phone with me, okay? Yes, hello.

This is not... Hello. This is not... Get here. Hurry up and get here. Let's probably be ready to get here. Stay on the line with me. I need you to stay in the line with me, okay?

Please. Please. I'm on the way. I need you to stay on the line with me, okay? Stay on the line. You're not disconnect. Are you able to give me a good address? Stay on the line with me, okay?

All right. They're coming as quickly as they can, okay? They're coming. They're on the way. Me and you talking is not delaying them. Stay on the phone with me. Stay on the line with me. John, what's your reaction to that call?

Well, you know, if you're trying to defend this person, you are going to argue that this is a response of someone. who wasn't planning a homicide, wasn't planning a murder, that this is a natural human reaction to something that happened in a split second. And of course, if you're the prosecution, you're saying there's nothing in there about any triggering event. There's nothing in that would let the defense say, you know, this is not first-degree murder, this is not second-degree murder, this gets down into the manslaughter area. But it's someone who is reacting humanly to an incredibly traumatic event, and it's going to be up to both sides to take that video, take that audio, and make it

what they can to convince a jury one way or the other. Legally, though, a defendant wouldn't be able to argue, defense counsel wouldn't be able to argue, if someone calls 911 immediately after allegedly shooting somebody and asking for help to come immediately, oh, that shows there was no intent to kill. That doesn't work, right? It doesn't work well, but it's what they've got,

and they've got to argue at this point the person called because I think I'm defending it, why did they call? What was triggering in their mind that led them to call? And we don't have a lot of information from it, So it actually is a blank slate in a lot of ways because both sides are going to ask the jury to interpret what they want out of it. But there's not a lot of information in that call. So there is this affidavit that was seen by the Sun Sentinel, and it reportedly says that White told investigators he and Lala had several arguments that day that they got into another fight in the car after Lala pulled his hair.

And the affidavit, again, according to the Sun Sentinel, reads, quote, White advised that he then pulled his firearm but declined to provide any further details stating he did not want to include. criminate himself. Now, John, you're an attorney, doesn't necessarily mean someone's guilty if they don't want to provide more information to police. They're just trying to protect their rights, right? They're trying to protect their argument at a trial, right? But it also could look bad. Well, again, the jury is not going to hear anything about him exercising Fifth Amendment rights in terms of not being able to, you know, the jury can't use that to say, well, this is an indication of guilt. The judge is not going to allow that it's unconstitutional. he has a right to say, I don't want to talk anymore. I want a lawyer. Of course, this is protected by the Fifth Amendment in every state in the country. But it is going to, everything he says, up to that point, to the police, to a dispatcher, all that is evidence that the prosecution is going to use to build this case.

Now, White was arrested at the scene. The gun was taken into evidence. As I mentioned, Lala had multiple gunshot wounds, was taken to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, but that is where she died. And White was charged with first-degree murder with a firearm. He's been locked up in the Broward County Jail. bond since Friday. Not surprised by that, right? Not surprised no bond? No, that's about right for this kind of a crime, not a surprising move by the judge. Because of the dangerous aspect of this? The dangerous aspect of it. The police were still gathering information about it. You don't know when it was at a flight risk. Is it a danger to the community? Is there a history here? But at the end of the day, this is not surprising that the judge is keeping this defendant in custody. And by the way, if he's convicted, he could face life in prison or potentially the death penalty. How do prosecutors weigh whether to go capital punishment on something?

like this? You know, it's a tough call, and I've had cases when I was in a state that had the death penalty where you had to make those determinations, what you've got to do is look at the history, you've got to look at the circumstances of the crime. I mean, these are really hard decisions for prosecutors in the states that have that capital punishment, and it's one of the toughest decisions a prosecutor can make. I want to ask about a potential piece of evidence that may come in, because NBC 6 is reporting that after this happened, there were those online, obviously I said, Lala has a ton of followers. There are those online, and I mentioned this kind of before, who have found these old videos allegedly showing potential domestic violence in the relationship.

An example of Lala with an apparent cut on her nose, an eye. Do prosecutors do a full deep dive into the relationship? Do they go through all of the social media to potentially find prior alleged instances of domestic violence? And can they use that at trial? Well, it's a valuable tool. Investigators want to know what's the history here, what were the signs that pointed to this being something other than just a random moment in time. if there was an ability for prosecutors to build a case,

that there were a number of domestic violence incidents that's going to certainly help them. Whether it comes in or not, it's going to be up to a judge and whether the defense can keep that out as conduct that's not relevant to the jury's decision-making. But if you're investigating this case, you want to know every single incident that came up

because you've got to be able to build a case against this defendant to argue that this was not just an aberrational moment in time, that this was something that was leading up to a tragic result, ultimately. Anything I've said so far about the case that would indicate to you there is a potential argument for self-defense, or does it not make sense? Well, that's where I went first when we heard about this, because you have to wonder, is the defendant going to say I had to react this way because I felt like my life was in danger or that I was in danger of great bodily harm? We haven't seen anything like that yet, but we don't know all the facts. And the history doesn't indicate that there was any violence, the other direction, by the victim, toward the defendant.

But we don't know yet, and that may be something that the defense is going to have to try to investigate and build to try to get this person the best possible result. Actually, you mentioned that now. I'm thinking about it. If White can find evidence that he was abused and he had, you know, markings and wants to introduce that evidence, then the prosecution, I am. imagine would have the opportunity to put in everything that I just mentioned from social media, right? If you can't, if the defense wants to go that route, then the prosecution would be able to counter. Exactly. The defense has to be very careful about opening the door to things that are not going to help them in the end. Yeah, and it's a really, it's a tragic situation. It's a really

unsettling situation. Before we get into the human aspect of it, because sometimes it gets lost when we talk about all the law, think about a human life that was lost here. This feels like a case, if this does go to trial, where white is going to have to testify and explain what happened. I would think if the defense decides that this is the only way to have, the only avenue that they have, that's true. And there may be some kind of self-defense argument. There may be some claim that I reacted this way because of something that happened in the car that's not on that video. That's the problem with that video is it doesn't show us what was happening directly inside that vehicle at the time. So if you're the defense, you're going to try to make what you can of that. Now, Lala's loved ones told WPL, quote,

As a family, we appreciate every prayer, kind thought, and gesture during our time of bereavement. Now, we are just praying that justice is served to the fullest degree. And maybe in a cruel and heartbreaking twist, I should tell you that Lala's family members are no strangers to gun violence. Her brother was also reportedly shot and killed just over a year ago. This is according to outlet WPLJ. And Lala's story is making waves all over the internet. You have Florida rapper Jatavia Johnson, better known as J.T. rose to fame in a rap duo opposite Young Miami before launching a solo career. She posted

about Lala's story on her Instagram, encouraging people to donate to a GoFundMe that was set up to cover funeral costs. Johnson wrote, Rest Beautiful, Girl Lala, we love you, and heaven will never be boring now that you are there. Your boldness, energy, humor, and beauty will be missed. You never missed a chance to show me love. And for that, I'm forever grateful. I'm sorry this happened to you. And she also encouraged people to take domestic violence seriously, saying, Quote, if you ever see content about DV, don't laugh because it's a trans or black woman. We have a way of laughing through our pain because we have been shaped to be taken as jokes. Hashtag protect trans women.

Hashtag protect black women. Protect feminism as a whole. And that GoFundMe has raised more than $28,000 so far. We're going to put a link to it in the show notes. If you want to contribute, two points about this. Number one, you were talking about it before. You were a former prosecutor. How do you console those families?

How do you walk them through the process because the criminal process can be very frustrating, upsetting, emotional? How do you work with them through that? You've got to have so much sympathy for what the family is going through. You've got to say, I've got to explain how the justice system works. It's going to be frustrating for you. It's not necessarily clean. It's not quick. If you're a good prosecutor, you're saying, I'll be here.

My office will be here for you the entire way. We're going to do what we can. But at the same time, there's always a difference between what the families of domestic violence victims expect and what the reality is in a court setting. Because the prosecutors, while they're there for the victims' families, they also represent the state of whatever, Florida, for example. And so their job is to do what's best for the community, and that doesn't always coincide, sadly,

with what victims' families want. And trials cases are unpredictable, too, if they can't make certain guarantees. I want to go to this final point, and I want to be clear, I'm not blaming anybody. I'm not blaming anybody. But that statement kind of hits something where people post things on social media,

And if people are reporting and showing signs of domestic violence and no one steps in, no one reports it, they think it's funny, they, you know, maybe it's a member of a certain community, they don't take it seriously. That's a real thing, right? And the way I think about it also is like, I've seen so many videos where someone's like dying on the street or someone's being attacked on the street and people are just like, you know, videotaping, they're not calling. Are you seeing this more and more? Are you seeing a problem with social media and phones that there is a detachment from really accepting? what's going on? Well, that's the danger, isn't it? There's the idea that now in our world of social media, that it's more important to record

the moment than to actually intervene as a human being and try to make some kind of a difference. And that's the concern, maybe that this incident with so many followers in social media, with so many people paying attention to this, maybe the idea that there are sometimes clues about domestic violence that people need to pay attention to more closely before something like this happens. John Day. Thanks so much for coming on.

I appreciate it. Of course. And that's all we have for you right now here on. Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.