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Former Deepwater Heir Continues Legal Battle of WillLock Icon

2 min read

Jordan Alexandra Peterson just can’t let it go.

The 22-year-old who goes by Alex, if you’ve forgotten, is the daughter of Donna Herring, the Camden real estate agent who allegedly created a fake will so Peterson would inherit the assets of a survivor of the Deepwater Horizon explosion who later died in an auto accident.

The alleged scheme almost worked.

The purported will led to federal wire fraud charges against Herring, Peterson and Herring’s sister and brother-in-law, Marion “Diane” Kinley and John Wayne Kinley Jr.

All four defendants have pleaded not guilty, and their trial is set for Sept. 11.

After a hearing back in March, Ouachita County Circuit Court Judge Spencer Singleton threw out the will that named Peterson as the beneficiary of Matthew Seth Jacobs, who died in January 2015.

The judge’s ruling paved the way for Jacobs’ only child to receive his father’s estate, which was worth nearly $2 million because of the civil settlement in the Deepwater Horizon case.

Now Peterson wants the judge to reopen the case.

Peterson said in her motion for a new trial that she was never notified that the case would be heard on March 13. Had she known, she said, she would have appeared, according to an affidavit that she signed last month.

“Based upon communications with my former attorneys, I mistakenly believed that both this matter and a related civil matter had been stayed until the disposition of an ongoing criminal prosecution regarding the allegations” involving the fake will, Peterson said in affidavit.

She said that had she known about the court date, she would have hired her third attorney in the case and would have gone on to “fully defend my property interests.”

However, Peterson, who said she was engaged to Jacobs at the time of his death, didn’t say that the will was valid.

Her attorney, Jordan B. Tinsley of Little Rock, didn’t return several calls for comment. Attorney Adam D. Reid of Little Rock, who represents Jacobs’ son, Jordan Jacobs, said in his filing that Peterson’s request should be thrown out.

The court “provided sufficient notice” of the hearing to Peterson, Reid wrote.

“Ms. Peterson was responsible for keeping herself informed of the Estate proceedings and her failure to do so operates as a bar to her requested relief,” Reid said in his filing.

As of last week, Judge Singleton hadn’t ruled whether he will hold a hearing on Peterson’s request.

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