The daughters of an Oregon pawn broker who was murdered earlier this year by a prostitute finally reached a settlement in a legal battle where they claimed two lawyers had cut them out of his $10 million will.
Jimmy Pearson, 63, apparently drafted a new will about eight months before he was found fatally shot in his bedroom at his $2 million mansion in the Oregon town of Milwaukie on March 1.
Nistasha Tate, 24, pleaded guilty Thursday and was given a life sentence in the murder. Investigators suspect Tate robbed Pearson frequently and walked out with bins full of what turned out to be costume jewelry.
Pearson’s two daughters, Tawnya, 33, and Sarah, 36, had been cut out of the second will and in their place was lawyers Ken Bauman and Johnathan Haub, who had done legal work for Pearson in recent years.
Ironically, in the early 1990s, Haub prosecuted Pearson for selling weed, long before it was legalized in Oregon. Pearson served nearly four years in prison for selling the drug and was penalized in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Jimmy Pearson (pictured center), seen here with daughters Tawnya (left) and Sarah. Jimmy was killed on March 1
Pearson’s will was the subject of a recent legal battle after it was discovered he’d cut out his two daughters in early 2020
Nistasha Tate stands while pleading guilty to theft and the murder of Milwaukie, Oregon businessman Jimmy Pearson on Thursday
Johnathan Haub, a legal advisor to Pearson, actually helped put him in jail for dealing marijuana in the early 1990s
The Pearsons reached an agreement with Bauman and Haub in October.
The two women were awarded both of their father’s pawn shops, while most of the rest of the estate went into a trust for his grandchildren.
Haub and Bauman each got $75,000.
The men downplayed the conflict, saying their friend’s wishes were honored in the end.
‘Jimmy wanted his grandchildren taken care of,’ Bauman said.
Sarah Pearson refused to discuss the legal battle when asked for comment earlier this week.
‘It’s very unfair as to what has happened to him and everyone involved,’ she said in a Facebook message. ‘Wrong on so many levels.’
However, the will led to months of a bitter legal conflict involving what the daughters say was their father’s strange behavior and a falling out over the women starting their own pawn shop.
The 63-year-old owned a chain of pawn shops in the Portland area called A-1 Hawk and lived in a five-bedroom, eight-bathroom estate along the Willamette River.
His family described him as generous, gregarious and doting of his four grandkids.
One of the two A-1 Hawk pawn shop locations owned by Pearson. The daughters were given the shops in a legal settlement after it was revealed they’d started a pawn shop of their own five months before Pearson changed his will
Pearson’s $2million Milwaukie, Oregon estate where he was murdered by prostitute Nistasha Tate
Tawny and Sarah challenged the remade will, saying their dad wasn’t himself when he picked the lawyers to inherit the nearly $10million in holdings.
Haub had only said that Pearson ‘had a change of heart’ and would not give further reasons why he made the decision, adding that he and Bauman had served as informal legal advisors to the man.
Sarah Pearson said that Bauman drafted a 2018 will for Pearson that named the daughters as beneficiaries.
She added Jimmy began ‘acting differently’ around 2018 until his death.
‘He hardly slept,’ she said in a sworn statement. ‘He seemed confused, stressed, overworked, and mentally exhausted. My sister and I worried that he was abusing Adderall and other substances.’
Public records show that there may have been a falling out between Pearson and his daughters in early 2020, when the women started their own pawn shop. In a Facebook post, Tawnya said that they ‘parted ways’ with their father at the time.
The change to his will was made five months later. Tawnya and Sarah didn’t learn about this until after Jimmy’s death.
Haub said that he and Pearson became friendly during the marijuana case and used the lawyer to vouch for him with local police when he began his pawn shop when he got out of prison.
Tawnya and Sarah began their own pawn shop business in early 2020, merely saying they had ‘parted ways’ with Jimmy
The Pearson sisters will now inherit both of their father’s A-1 Hawk pawn shops as part of the settlement
Pearson was described as generous and gregarious and a man who loved doting on his four grandchildren, who now stand to inherit the rest of his estate in a trust
At Haub’s retirement from the United States Attorney’s Office in 2017, he claimed Pearson said he wished Haub ‘was my dad’
‘I wrote to the chief,’ Haub said. ‘I said this man is an honorable man. He cooperates with law enforcement. He’s paid his debt.’
Haub added that they would occasionally meet for lunch and do charity work together.
At Haub’s retirement from the United States Attorney’s Office in 2017, he claimed Pearson said he wished Haub ‘was my dad.’
Bauman, meanwhile, met Pearson through Emmert International, an engineering and logistics company. Bauman worked for the owner, Terry Emmert.
Emmert, coincidentally, is a signatory witness to Pearson’s 2020 will.
Bauman, a former FBI agent and federal prosecutor, claimed he offered legal work for Pearson pro bono and called Pearson ‘a great character.’
Haub has argued that he and Bauman had no intention to inherit Pearson’s estate and said that the change had been done temporarily while Pearson worked with an estate lawyer to make the changes official.
Haub said the change in beneficiaries was intended ‘as a temporary thing’ and that Bauman referred Pearson to an estate lawyer in Corvallis who could help address Pearson’s wishes for his estate.
Bauman refuses to say what Pearson told him about his motivations for cutting his daughters out of the will, nor will he attest to Pearson’s mental state at the time of revisions.
‘Jimmy might (have decided) that two trusted friends who didn’t need the money would be the appropriate people — and nobody anticipates you’re going to get murdered, right? — might carry out his desires since they knew him,’ Bauman said, though he said he was speculating.
Pearson, seen here with daughter Sarah at his birthday party, had begun acting strangely a couple of years before he died, according to the daughters
The will named Bauman’s paralegal as the personal representative for Pearson’s estate, an attorney familiar with the will said. That role gave the woman authority to distribute Pearson’s personal possessions as she saw fit.
The rest of the murder victim’s assets, including his home and businesses, were split between Haub and Bauman.
Sarah Pearson has not responded to requests for comment but said in a Facebook message only that their father ‘had the biggest heart’ and was the kind of man who ‘would help anyone.’
The fight over the will eventually went to mediation where it was decided.
Bauman said one of the primary goals for the two lawyers was to provide for Pearson’s grandchildren.
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