Woman in Camden Fake Will Case Wants Separate Trial from Husband

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.

So much for better, for worse.

A Camden woman doesn’t want to be tried with her husband for crimes related to a fake will for a survivor of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion who later died in a car wreck.

Marion “Diane” Kinley and John Wayne Kinley Jr., are set for trial April 30 in U.S. District Court in El Dorado. Earlier this month, however, Diane Kinley asked U.S. District Judge Susan O. Hickey for a separate trial.

The motion filed by Bruce Eddy, a federal public defender in Fayetteville, asked that the reasons given for a separate trail be sealed, which it was.

“It is believed that the grounds for severance set forth in Ms. Kinley’s motion could potentially taint the jury pool if the contents of the motion were made available to the general public,” Eddy wrote.

Hickey hasn’t ruled as of Thursday.

A sentencing date also hasn’t been set for the former Camden real estate agent and her daughter, who pleaded guilty to federal crimes related to the fake will.

Donna Herring pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and her daughter, Jordan Alexandra “Alex” Peterson, 22, pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI. (see Mother, Daughter Plead Guilty in Fake Will Crime.)

Herring admitted to creating a will after Matthew Seth Jacobs, who had survived the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010, died in a one-vehicle wreck in January 2015. The fake will left nearly all of Jacobs’ $1.7 million in assets to Peterson, instead of to Jacobs’ only child.

(A Ouachita County judge has granted a request to exhume Jacobs’ body, finding “reasonable cause exists to believe” that Jacobs’ death “occurred under circumstances contrary” to that of the auto accident and bodily trauma.)

Herring faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Peterson faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.