A Texas attorney will spend 180 days in jail after being convicted of trying to poison his pregnant wife and induce a miscarriage. Mason Herring, 39, and his wife, Catherine Herring, were already parents of two children and were building a life together. But things were not as they appeared, and Mason Herring apparently came up with a more sinister plot.
Catherine Herring spoke to People about her life both before and after the birth of the couple’s third child, Josephine, who ultimately survived her father’s attempted attack but was born more than two months early. The mother doesn’t think her soon-to-be ex’s sentence is nearly enough for what he did to her and their daughter.
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The family's life was changing.
The couple had planned to separate just before they found out about the pregnancy, and they decided to work things out. Catherine Herring explained to People that they had just moved into a new home in Houston and were on a trip together the weekend before the first poisoning. Mason made a drink for his wife that made her violently ill in March 2022. She was seven weeks pregnant at the time.
“He was like, ‘I noticed during spring break that you don’t drink enough water, and I think you should start every day with a big glass. It’ll make you feel better,'” Catherine Herring recalled.
She knew something was wrong.
Catherine Herring felt suspicious of her husband after the first poisoning attempt, so she began collecting the drinks he made her as potential evidence. She also monitored cameras around the house and saw her husband putting strange things in the trash. She was shocked when she noticed the packaging for a drug used to induce an abortion.
Catherine Herring hired a private investigator.
The private investigator installed cameras in an air conditioning vent in the kitchen, and the mother of two caught her husband in the act the same day. He made her a glass of juice and crushed up pills inside the drink.
“The amount that he was using was just shocking,” she said. “You could see it, half an inch to an inch, on each drink.”
She said her husband very casually delivered the drink like nothing was wrong.
She felt betrayed by the man she loved.
Catherine Herring told People she hoped she was wrong about her husband, but the video evidence was proof.
“There was a lot of emotion,” she said. “To actually see him doing it was shocking.”
She filed for divorce, and the proceedings are pending. She gave birth to her daughter in August 2022, 10 weeks early.
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Mason Herring got a Mexican version of the drug.
According to Texas Public Radio, he obtained Cyrux, a Mexican version of the American drug Cytotec. The medication’s main ingredient is misoprostol, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, can induce miscarriage and cause other congenital disabilities. It is available only by prescription in the United States and is not intended for use by pregnant women or women who plan to become pregnant.
He will spend a short time in jail.
Mason Herring pleaded guilty to assault of a pregnant person and injury to a child, both felonies, and will spend 180 days in jail, followed by 10 years of probation, according to Texas Public Radio.
Catherine Herring told People it’s not enough.
“I just don’t think 180 days is justice for attempting to kill your child seven separate times. This was intentional, it was knowingly done. This wasn’t a crime of passion, or something like that,” she said. “This was over the course of two months and seven rounds of attempted murder. If you divide it up, he’s serving less than 26 days per attempt to kill my child.”
Dan Cogdell, an attorney for Mason Herring, told Texas Public Radio that he thought his client got a “good deal.”
“This is a serious matter. I’m not denying that. I’m certainly not unsympathetic to his wife’s reaction, but this is a third-degree felony,” Cogdell said. “This is not a capital murder. No lives were lost. No permanent injuries have occurred. That young child will go forward and I think be fine. His ex-wife will move forward and I hope be fine. And Mason will go forward and I hope be fine.”
