Donna Herring is accused of creating a fake will for Matthew Jacobs, a survivor of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, days after he died in an automobile crash in January 2015. The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 5 in El Dorado.
Jordan Alexandra “Alex” Peterson wants probation because of her mom.
Peterson, 23, is the daughter of the former Camden real estate agent who orchestrated a scheme to create a fake will for Matthew Seth Jacobs.
He was a survivor of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion who later died in a car wreck in January 2015.
Peterson faced seven federal charges in connection with the crime but agreed to plead guilty to the felony of making a false statement to the FBI in exchange for the other charges being dismissed.
She asked a judge on June 5 for a light sentence because “she was nothing more than a passive receptacle for Donna Herring’s ill-gotten gains,” according to a filing by her court appointed attorney, Allen P. Roberts of Camden.
Peterson said the cash proceeds of Jacobs’ estate went into a bank account that she and her mother had joint ownership of.
“Indeed, defendant’s only connection to this underlying criminal scheme, and therefore, her only guilt regarding that scheme, is being Donna Herring’s daughter,” the filing said. “It would be double jeopardy to sentence her for that again because defendant is already serving life without parole for that offense.”
A graduate of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Peterson was planning on going to the University of Arkansas at Monticello to get a graduate degree and be a public school teacher.
Peterson asked for one year of probation and a fine of $4,392. According to the federal sentencing guidelines, Peterson could be sentenced to up to six months in federal prison.
Not So Fast
Candace Taylor, an assistant U.S. attorney, had a different take on Peterson’s request for leniency.
“Peterson claims a lack of knowledge of the fraud going on all around her but the facts suggest a conscious course of deliberate ignorance,” Taylor wrote in her response to Peterson’s filing.
After Jacobs’ death, Peterson was present for the first search of Jacobs’ gun safe when no will was discovered, Taylor said. She then changed the safe’s code so no one could get in. But she gave the combination to Herring, so she could hide the fake will in it to be found later.
“For Peterson to feign ignorance of the fake will being found in the very safe she stood in front of a couple of days before when no will was found in it, and then claim to no knowledge of the scheme, is reductio ad absurdum,” Taylor wrote.
And after Jacobs’ death, Peterson got rid of his smartphone, which had evidence that showed Jacobs was seeing another woman. That would have supported Jacobs’ statements made about a month before his death that he had broken off his engagement with Peterson.
“Peterson did not just lie on the spur of the moment,” Taylor wrote. “She thought through the facts and realized that the lie was more beneficial to her than the truth. She continued the lie until others gave up the truth and then she had no choice.”
Taylor asked for a sentence within the guideline range.
A sentencing date hasn’t been set.
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