When Criminal Law Meets Trusts And Estates: Forging A Last Will And Testament

As opposed to what one may see on the silver screen, dramatic and emotional will readings with the decedent’s loved ones all clothed in somber attire are quite rare. In truth, any drama that ensues from being surprised by any bequests in a will are played out in the courts and are hashed out by attorneys. A last will can be contested on the basis of undue influence, testator’s lack of testamentary capacity, due execution, fraud or mistake. A type of fraud that crosses into the domain of criminal law is that of forgery – where the decedent was not the actual testator.

Donna Herring was recently sentenced to 41 months in Arkansas for forging the last will of her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, Matthew Jacobs. Jacobs’ estate was worth approximately $1.7 million, mostly due to receiving a portion of a settlement from an oil rig explosion. He died in a car accident in 2015 and his son and brother could not find a will. Five days after his death, Herring used an online program to write and sign a will in his name, and then claimed she had found it in the decedent’s gun safe. The online component added to the cyber-related federal charges. Her daughter, son-in-law, and sister-in-law were also convicted in the scheme.

See Cori A. Robinson, When Criminal Law Meets Trusts And Estates: Forging A Last Will And Testament, Above the Law, December 10, 2019.

Special thanks to Carissa Peterson (Hrbacek Law Firm, Sugar Land, Texas) for bringing this article to my attention.