Texas woman on trial for 5th husband’s death after a trail of death, a ‘far-fetched’ tale of self-defense, and foiled murder plots

A woman in Texas is currently facing charges that she had something to do with her late husband’s death. Leading up to her arrest, the woman was mourning her husband on Facebook and in the 2 years since her arrest people have been looking up her disturbing relationship history with her 5 past husbands that involve at least 1 confirmed killing and 1 alleged death threat.

Sarah Hartsfield, 50, was married to Joseph Hartsfield, 46, up until his death in Jan. 2023. In the weeks leading up to Joseph’s death, Sarah was venting about their marriage to a friend on Facebook. According to NBC, Sarah confided in a message saying, “I’ve paid for everything to the point I have nothing left, he was just looking for a meal ticket and way back to a lifestyle he could never attain on his own.” This wouldn’t be the first murder case with Facebook featuring prominently in the evidence docket.

Joseph told close family and friends that he was worried Sarah was going to try and kill him. He even moved back to his hometown and opened a new bank account with the eventual goal of divorcing her. Before that could come to fruition, on Jan. 7, 2023, Joseph was admitted to a hospital in Houston with low blood sugar. A nurse, this time being on the right side of such a tragedy, tried to give him medical care but nothing worked and Joseph died. The nurse believed it was a case of a fatal dose of insulin. Joseph was Sarah’s fifth husband.

Foul play via insulin is notoriously hard to prove in a court of law but with Sarah, the prosecution seems to be angling toward pointing out a concerning pattern about her past relationships. Out of her 5 partners: she’s accused of killing one, confessed to killing one in self defense, and one sought a protective order against her because she was accused of plotting to kill his new wife.

Chambers County sheriff Brian Hawthorne described this unfortunate trend saying, “You can just look at her overall history and you can tell that there’s a very evil side to her.” Sarah’s former lawyer, however, once assured her innocence, “We adamantly denounce the misinformation that has been provided to the public regarding her past.” That lawyer has since withdrawn from the case due to Sarah’s insistence on not following legal advice.

Sarah’s story of how she ended up killing her former partner is disputed by his family as “farfetched.” Regardless, Sarah claims that her third husband came to visit their shared daughter and her then partner — David Bragg — gave her what she described as “the beating of my life.” It was then that Sarah says she reached for a gun and shot him.

That same third husband — Christopher Donohue — sought a protective order against Sarah just two years later. By then, she was married to her fourth husband, David George, whom she allegedly handed a pistol to and instructed to kill Donohue’s new wife. George, however, refused to join yet another criminal couple and instead warned Donohue about the plot.

In the years since, George has made a full retraction of his allegations. Regardless, both George and Donohue have been subpoenaed as witnesses in the criminal charges against Sarah for her latest accusations. Still, Sarah maintains her innocence.