The Chambers County woman who has been married five times and is accused of killing at least two of her exes was involved in a murder plot in 2021, according to court documents obtained by KPRC 2 News.
According to documents, Sarah Hartsfield allegedly told one of her ex-husbands he wasn’t allowed back in their home until he carried out a plot to kill the new wife of a different ex-husband.
Hartsfield, 48, is currently in the Chambers County Jail accused of murdering her fifth husband, Joseph Hartsfield, who sources said died of an insulin overdose at a Baytown hospital in January.
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Hartsfield is also under investigation in Minnesota once again, where she fatally shot her fiancée David Bragg in 2018. Prosecutors initially deemed it self-defense but reopened the investigation days after a Texas grand jury indicted her for the January murder.
The new court documents obtained by KPRC 2 News allege that Hartsfield, whose last name was George at the time, put a hit out on her ex-husband Christopher Donohue’s new wife.
The alleged hit man was her husband at the time, David George, but documents state there was concern she’d find someone else to do it if George didn’t.
A filing for a protective order against her claims she wanted the woman dead “so that [Donohue] would be too busy dealing with the death to focus on fighting for [their children] anymore.”
According to a sworn affidavit, when Donohue wrote in asking for the protective order, George allegedly told him “he had a pistol that was given to him by Sarah to carry out this act” but that he had been “trying for months to get Sarah to stop pressuring him” and that he’d “lie to her about why it hadn’t happened yet.”
In separate filings weeks later, George denied the alleged plot and called it a plan to remove two of the Donohue children from their mother. George also wrote that he traveled to Donohue’s home in Arizona from Minnesota.
The plot came to light in March 2021 in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Local police confirmed being involved in the investigation to KPRC 2 News.
“On March 19, 2021, an FBI agent contacted a detective with the SVPD and advised they were investigating Christopher and Heather Donohue and Christopher’s ex-wife Sarah George. He requested a close patrol of Christopher’s residence until they had a better understanding of the case. The SVPD conducted close patrols of the residence as requested,” a department spokesperson wrote in a statement.
The FBI has not provided information to KPRC 2 News about the investigation.
When investigators spoke to Sarah Hartsfield [George] at her home, “she lied about everything, and the agents were gone,” according to the Donohue affidavit.
Court records show a week after she allegedly spoke to investigators, she filed to divorce David George, the man she wanted to carry out the alleged hit.
According to documents, Hartsfield lost custody of her two younger children after the alleged murder plot came to light. The judge wrote that family violence occurred and was likely to occur again.
The judge also ordered no contact between Hartsfield and her two younger children and Donohue’s new wife. That order is still in effect.
Hartsfield is currently being held on a $5,000,000 bond in the Chambers County Jail on the Texas murder charge.
“The nature of the offender? A woman who’s allegedly engaged in a variety of criminal wrongdoing that you’re not likely to see in your typical run-of-the-mill murder defendant,” KPRC 2 Legal Analyst Brian Wice said. “When it comes to the punishment stage of any criminal trial in Texas, if in fact she’s convicted of murder, I can almost assure you, that this jury will hear almost everything about her life because your life during the punishment stage becomes an open book.”
Investigators have called for anyone who knew her or has information about her past to come forward for the investigation.
“Sarah Hartsfield maintains her innocence and will assist in the investigation of her husband’s untimely death. We adamantly denounce the misinformation that has been provided to the public regarding her past, as well as any criminal involvement currently in Chambers County. We are engaged in the discovery process and would remind the public to withhold any judgment until due process has been satisfied,” Hartsfield’s defense attorney Keaton Kirkwood wrote in a statement to KPRC 2.
Hartsfield is expected to be arraigned on March 1, when her defense plans to also ask the judge to lower her bond.