*Medical examiners found zero evidence to prove the allegation that blues icon B.B. King was poisoned before he died of natural causes in May, according to autopsy findings made public Monday.
Tests conducted after two of King’s 11 adult children said their father had been poisoned showed the cause of death was Alzheimer’s disease, plus physical conditions including coronary disease, heart failure and the effects of Type 2 diabetes, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg told The Associated Press.
Daughters Karen Williams and Patty King had said through their attorney, Larissa Drohobyczer, that King’s business manager, LaVerne Toney, and his personal assistant, Myron Johnson, hastened their father’s death.
Brent Bryson, a lawyer for King’s estate, has called the claims defamatory and libelous.
“Ms. Toney and Mr. Johnson are very happy that these false and fictional allegations that were made against them by certain of Mr. King’s children have been dispelled,” Bryson said. “Hopefully we can now focus on the body of musical work that B.B. King left the world, and he can finally rest in peace.”
The findings close official investigations of King’s death, Fudenberg said. Homicide
The daughters led a group of several of King’s surviving adult children and grandchildren in an unsuccessful bid to snatch guardianship and oversight of the King estate from Toney.
Williams, Patty King and daughters Rita Washington and Barbara Winfree had Drohobyczer contest their father’s will. They enlisted prominent national attorneys Benjamin Crump and Jose Baez to investigate whether B.B. King was properly cared for before he died in hospice care at home in Las Vegas at age 89.
Washington said she’s still upset that no family members were present. But she said she was relieved to learn her father hadn’t been poisoned.
“I’m glad it’s natural causes,” Washington said. “We just didn’t know what was going on and what had happened with our father.”
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