The trial date has been moved to Sept. 11 for the Camden real estate agent who was indicted, with her 21-year-old daughter and two other family members, for allegedly creating a fake will for a survivor of the Deepwater Horizon explosion who later died in an auto accident.
Donna Herring, her daughter, Jordan Alexandra “Alex” Peterson, and Herring’s sister and brother-in-law, Marion “Diane” Kinley and John Wayne Kinley Jr., all face counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. All four defendants have pleaded not guilty. Their trial had been set for April 3 in U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey’s courtroom in El Dorado.
Peterson asked for the continuance, and Hickey granted the request.
If you recall, Herring was indicted by a federal grand jury in El Dorado on charges of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. The indictment also seeks the forfeiture from the four defendants of several pieces of property and more than $700,000 in cash that the government says belonged to the estate of Matthew Seth Jacobs.
The allegations include that Herring created a fake will after Jacobs died in January 2015. The will left nearly all of Jacobs’ assets to Herring’s daughter.
Only after the assets of Jacobs’ estate were distributed to Herring’s daughter at the end of 2015 did questions surface about the authenticity of the will.