More Charges Brought Against Camden Defendants in Fake Will Case

Donna Herring is accused of creating Matthew Jacobs' last will and testament days after he died in January 2015.

A Camden mother and daughter team who were accused of creating a fake will for a survivor of the Deepwater Horizon explosion now are facing even more federal charges.

Late last month, a federal grand jury in El Dorado issued a second superseding indictment against Donna Herring and her 22-year-old daughter, Jordan Alexandra “Alex” Peterson, and Herring’s sister and brother-in-law, Marion “Diane” Kinley and John Wayne Kinley Jr.

The new charges are tied to allegations that Herring created a fake will after Matthew Seth Jacobs, who had survived the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010, died in a one-vehicle car accident in January 2015. The will in question left nearly all of Jacobs’ assets to Peterson, instead of Jacobs’ only child.

The Kinleys allegedly signed the document, indicating that they witnessed Jacobs sign the purported will.

It wasn’t until after the assets of Jacobs’ estate, worth approximately $1.7 million, were distributed to Peterson at the end of 2015 that questions surfaced about the authenticity of the will.

In the new indictment, the charges against the Kinleys remained the same. Herring, Peterson and the Kinleys all still are facing one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Herring and the Kinleys each face one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

But now Alex Peterson is also facing four new counts of money laundering. She also has been charged with one count each of obstruction and making a false statement for allegedly telling FBI and Arkansas State Police agents that she didn’t know where Jacobs’ cellphone was.

The indictment alleges that Peterson knew where the phone was.

Herring also is facing five new counts of money laundering.

Of course, the government wants the four defendants to forfeit all proceeds from Jacobs’ estate, which includes three houses in Camden and one in Arkadelphia; more than $700,000 in bank accounts; and vehicles that include a 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe.

Herring has pleaded not guilty to the new charges.

As of Thursday, the Kinleys and Peterson hadn’t entered pleas in the new indictment. They are scheduled for arraignment at 10 a.m. Friday in U.S. District Court in El Dorado before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant.