Defendant’s Wife in Murder Case Researched Probate Law Before the Murder

In Pasco, Washington, Todd Stuart is accused of the attempted murder of his mother-in-law, Judy Herbert. Reportedly, Todd conspired with his estranged wife Tashia Stuart to kill Herbert in the hope that they would obtain her money through inheritance. There were reportedly two incidents that the defendant’s tried to kill Herbert. The first incident occurred February 20, 2011. On that day, a 32 lb-bin of books fell directly on Herbert’s head and almost killed her. The second incident occurred about two weeks later on March 3, 2011. On that day Herbert was shot to death by Tashia Stuart, who is now charged with first-degree murder with aggravated circumstances. Tashia is claiming that she killed her mother in self-defense. 

While the police department was investigating the incident, they determined that Tashia was researching probate law in the State of Washington. What makes this strange within the context of the investigation was that someone who signed in under Tashia’s username was researching the applicable probate law on days that were near the two incidents described above. In particular, Tashia visited the same site twice and on the day before the actual alleged murder. Both times, she did research on lost or destroyed wills. 

See Annette Cary, Prosecutor in Pasco Murder Case Says Defendant’s Wife Researched Probate Law, Tri-City Herald, Sept. 22, 2012.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this blog to my attention.