Miracle Williams detailed before a federal judge the terrible situation that led to her partner's suicide. He spoke about the woman he believes is responsible for her death.
Robert Tascon had been involved in a legal dispute since 2021, Williams said through tears, over a home he owned in a beautiful, exclusive area of Encino. That September, investigators say, a woman named Caroline Herrling fraudulently sold her home for $1.5 million.
Herrling, 44, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced Friday by Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong to 20 years in federal prison.
“I was trying to sell the house so we could start our lives again,” Williams told the judge during Herrling's sentencing hearing, his voice breaking with emotion. “The situation made him feel helpless.”
Tascón came from a wealthy family that created two trusts for him in California, according to a report from the United States Postal Inspection Service. He was provided with enough money to spend freely, Travis Hartgraves, a Tascón attorney and case manager, told investigators last year.
But Tascón developed a problem with alcohol, Hartgraves told investigators. Williams convinced him to move with her to Abilene, Texas, in 2018 to get away from her negative influences.
Tascón's home in Encino was his last asset, although he still had monthly payments from the trusts, Hartgraves told Lyndon Versoza, a postal inspector working on the fraud case.
Tascón wanted to sell the house, according to the postal inspectors' report, which was filed as part of the case against Herrling. But he couldn't because it had been occupied by squatters. It is still unclear how Herrling found the property.
She sold the Tascón home using an accomplice with false identification documents to pose as the owner, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Herrling had represented herself to the buyer as a licensed California attorney representing homeowners in difficult situations who needed to sell, according to an affidavit by Mark O'Donnell, a homicide detective supervisor for the Los Angeles Police Department.
In a plea agreement, Herrling admitted to setting up bank and E-Trade accounts to receive the proceeds of the sale, which Tascon did not authorize and which was accomplished through identity theft.
Hartgraves told Versoza the house sold for half its value.
Herrling used the money from the sale to help pay for a home in West Hills, according to the affidavit.
After the house was sold out, Tascón filed a lawsuit in an attempt to get it back.
“I will never get my house back,” Hartgraves recalled Tascón telling him.
“The mis-selling almost ruined it,” Hartgraves told Versoza.
The fraudulent sale was the last straw; consumed Tascón, Hartgraves said, according to court documents.
Tascón committed suicide on September 11, 2022. He was 53 years old. The police report noted that he had a history of mental illness and was involved in fraud litigation.
Robert Tascon in an undated photo.
(Los Angeles Police Department)
When investigators interviewed Herrling in January 2023, she denied having anything to do with the sale of the Tascón property. She claimed that her only involvement was taking Tascón to a notary to facilitate the sale of the house, and that she was only paid about $150 to do so.
When Versoza asked Herrling to describe Tascón, she could not, saying that he had worn a hat and a mask. Later, when she was confronted, Herrling did not deny profiting from the sale, and instead said she did not leave Tascón destitute, according to the affidavit.
During sentencing, Herrling's attorney, Alex Kessel, said he did not believe there was “any evidence to suggest that my client directly caused the death” of Tascón.
“He had a mental illness that developed long before the house in California was fraudulently sold,” Kessel said, citing Tascón's previous suicide attempt in 2021. “We never know why someone commits suicide… I don't know. “They have reported evidence of a suicide note where he explained his mood and mental state at that time.”
Assistant. U.S. Attorney Andrew Brown noted that Tascón “had property and lost it.”
Frimpong agreed with the prosecutor. During the sentencing hearing, she said there was “sufficient evidence to determine that the death was a suicide and was caused in part by the loss of [Tascon’s] property.”
Tascón bequeathed his assets to Williams, his common-law wife, investigators said. However, with the fraudulent sale of the Encino house, he had nothing left to give her.
When Williams spoke in court, he acknowledged that Tascón was “mentally fragile” but said the sale of his home had only made things worse.
Williams was holding a framed photograph of Tascón when he first spoke. She described him as his “best friend.” After her death, Williams told the judge that she had also attempted suicide.
“This lady is a great manipulator and con artist and she has gotten away with using the dead,” Williams told the judge, referring to Herrling. “Hold her responsible and don't let her do this to anyone else. Because this has ruined my life.”
