Donna Herring in Fake Will Case: I Made ‘Horrible Mistake’

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)

Donna Herring, a former Camden real estate agent, was sentenced last week to 41 months in federal prison for orchestrating an infamous fake will that came to light at the end of 2016. Her sister, brother-in-law and daughter were all sentenced last week for their parts in the scheme.

“I am not a horrible person, but I did make a horrible mistake, and it was a crime,” Herring said in a written statement read by her defense attorney, Erin Cassinelli of Little Rock. Herring had planned to read it to Chief U.S. District Court Judge Susan O. Hickey, but appeared to be too upset to convey the typed statement. “I take full responsibility for my actions and humbly ask for you to accept my admission of guilt. I am truly sorry.”

Hickey sentenced Herring to the low end of the federal guideline range for her crime, and she’ll face three years of supervised release after her prison term.

Hickey agreed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District that the crime was sophisticated, which increased the guideline range from 33 to 41 months in prison to 41 to 51 months.

During her sentencing Tuesday, Judge Hickey told Herring that her intentions were not pure and were driven by greed.

Herring pleaded guilty in 2018 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with creating a fake will for Matthew Seth Jacobs. Jacobs survived the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in 2010 and had received sizable financial 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, who was 17 at the time of his father’s death.

Herring’s sister and brother-in-law, Marion “Diane” Kinley and John Wayne Kinley Jr., pleaded pleaded guilty in connection with the case in April 2018.

John Wayne Kinley was sentenced on Tuesday to a year and a day in federal prison for wire fraud. His prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release. Diane Kinley was sentenced on Wednesday to 18 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Peterson also was sentenced Wednesday, to three years of probation, with the first six months served on home detention with electronic monitoring. She had pleaded guilty to obstruction.

“Because of my choices, the past few years have been difficult for my family,” Herring said in her statement. “I am deeply regretful that I brought my family into this. If it weren’t for me, they would not be involved.”

A restitution hearing for all defendants was set for Thursday morning, after Arkansas Business’ deadline. Federal prosecutors were seeking restitution of nearly $200,000. (There was about $925,000 in cash from the estate, and federal agents seized about $720,000 of that money and ultimately returned it to Jordan Jacobs.)

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Wulff of the Western District of Arkansas argued at Herring’s sentencing hearing that she not only created a fake will, but she then staged a search for it, followed by using unsuspecting attorneys and the Ouachita County Probate Court to carry out her plan.

In her statement, Herring apologized to Jacobs’ son, who was “just a kid” who was “put through a stressful situation that a person your age should never have to endure.” She also apologized to her daughter, who pleaded guilty in January 2018 to her role in the plot. “I never thought about how my wrongdoing could hurt you,” the statement said.

Herring had told investigators that Jacobs drafted a will — which she said she “probably” destroyed — that left “everything” to her daughter. Herring said she created the fake will so Jacobs’ son wouldn’t be “left completely out,” according to the plea agreement. Herring said she created the will the way she thought Matt Jacobs would have wanted it to be.

The fraudulent will left $50,000 to Jordan Jacobs “for college or trade school” and the remainder, assets worth about $1.3 million, to Peterson.

Wulff, the assistant U.S. attorney, said that “this was a deeply personal crime” for Jordan Jacobs. He dismissed Herring’s claim that she was trying to take care of the boy, pointing out that the fake will included a provision saying that he wouldn’t get even the $50,000 if he challenged the bequest.

“It was about the money,” Wulff said.

The fake will was filed with the probate court in Ouachita County in March 2015. Before the fraud was discovered, Peterson agreed Jacobs’ son would receive $300,000. Herring and the Kinleys will report to prison on Jan. 22.