Oxygen’s ‘Southern Fried Lies’ Dives Into Fake Will Case Involving Arkansas Real Estate Agent

Donna Herring walks outside of the U.S. District Courthouse in El Dorado on Tuesday. She was sentenced to 41 months in prison for forging a fake will for Deepwater Horizon survivor Matthew Seth Jacobs. (Mark Friedman)

Arkansas Business has temporarily lifted the paywall for the following stories on the Donna Herring case as a courtesy to viewers of “Southern Fried Lies.”
► Restitution Figures Handed Down in Fake Will Case
► Donna Herring in Fake Will Case: I Made ‘Horrible Mistake’
► Fake Will Forger Refutes Argument of ‘Sophisticated’ Scheme
► Fake Will Case Leads to Exhumation, Inquiry Into Death

The case of the Camden real estate agent Donna Herring, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme to create a fake will, will be featured in an upcoming documentary on true crime network Oxygen.

The two-hour special called “Southern Fried Lies” premieres Sunday at 6 p.m. and then will be available to stream on Peacock on April 29.

Herring pleaded guilty in 2018 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme to create a fake will for Matthew Seth Jacobs. Jacobs survived the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in 2010 and had received sizable settlements before he died at 34 in a one-car accident in January 2015.

Herring created a fake will so that the bulk of Jacobs’ $1.7 million estate would go to her daughter, Jordan Alexandra Peterson, with whom Jacobs had had a romantic relationship, instead of Jacobs’ only child, Jordan Jacobs.

Joel Chiodi, an executive producer on the project, said that he was attracted to the story mainly because of Donna Herring. 

“I just love these characters and these people who are larger than life,” he said.

The documentary also shows how much control Donna Herring had in Camden, Chodi said. 

“And so for me, I think …  the combo of that was irresistible, and that’s what got me excited about the project,” he said. 

In addition to the fake will, police uncover a secret mistress and other “inexplicable deaths,” and wonder if “something potentially more nefarious could be at play,” according to the Oxygen news release. 

Herring, who said in a statement at her sentencing in 2019 that she took full responsibility for her actions, said in the documentary that she was involved, but she wasn’t the only one, Chodi said.

“So that’s one of the big twists in the story,” he said. “So without going into it too far, she throws another wrench in at the last minute.

“It creates another whole ball of chaos,” he said. 

Chiodi said the project took years to put together. 

“The other thing you don’t realize is there’s things people say that you take as fact, but then when you go and verify or get three other people will say something different,” he said. “And so there’s a lot of sifting you have to do in order to make sure you have an accurate, thoughtful, suspenseful, entertaining story.”