{"id":10662,"date":"2015-07-23T13:36:23","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T13:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=10662"},"modified":"2015-07-23T13:36:23","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T13:36:23","slug":"no-evidence-b-b-king-was-poisoned-coroner-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=10662","title":{"rendered":"No evidence B.B. King was poisoned, coroner says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medical examiners found no evidence to prove the allegation that blues legend B.B. King<\/a> was poisoned before he died of natural causes in May, according to autopsy findings.<\/p>\n

Tests conducted after two of the musical icon\u2019s 11 adult children said their father had been murdered showed the cause of death was Alzheimer\u2019s disease, plus physical conditions including coronary disease, heart failure and the effects of Type 2 diabetes, Clark County coroner John Fudenberg<\/a> told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Daughters Karen Williams<\/a> and Patty King<\/a> had said through their attorney, Larissa Drohobyczer, that King\u2019s business manager, LaVerne Toney, and his personal assistant, Myron Johnson, hastened their father\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Drohobyczer didn\u2019t immediately respond to messages Monday.<\/p>\n

Brent Bryson, a lawyer for King\u2019s estate, called the claims against Toney and Johnson defamatory and libelous.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Toney and Mr. Johnson are very happy that these false and fictional allegations that were made against them by certain of Mr. King\u2019s children have been dispelled,\u201d Bryson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we can now focus on the body of musical work that B.B. King left the world, and he can finally rest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police were awaiting the coroner\u2019s findings, which Fudenberg said close official investigations of King\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Homicide Lt. Dan McGrath<\/a> said there is no active police investigation.<\/p>\n

The allegations drew intense interest while the daughters led a group of several of King\u2019s surviving adult children and grandchildren in an unsuccessful bid to wrest guardianship and oversight of the King estate from Toney.<\/p>\n

Williams, Patty King and daughters Rita Washington<\/a> and Barbara Winfree<\/a> had Drohobyczer contest their father\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

They enlisted prominent national attorneys Benjamin Crump<\/a> andJose Baez<\/a> to investigate whether B.B. King was properly cared for before he died.<\/p>\n

Crump and Baez didn\u2019t immediately respond Monday to messages.<\/p>\n

B.B. King died in hospice care at home in Las Vegas<\/a> at age 89. No family members were present.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s physician, Dr. Darin Brimhall, and the coroner attributed his death at that time to natural causes \u2013 a series of small strokes caused by atherosclerotic vascular disease as a consequence of a long battle with blood sugar fluctuations and type 2 diabetes. The medical term was multi-infarct dementia.<\/p>\n

Fudenberg said Monday that the autopsy found evidence of cerebrovascular disease and mini-strokes similar to those described earlier. \u201cConsidering the information available to any clinical physician at the time,\u201d he said, \u201cmulti-infarct dementia was a reasonable conclusion to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fudenberg said tests didn\u2019t detect any substances that might have hastened King\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The autopsy to collect tissue samples was conducted May 24 \u2013 10 days after King died, two days after a public viewing in Las Vegas drew more than 1,000 fans and mourner, and one day after a family-and-friends memorial drew 350 people to a downtown Las Vegas funeral chapel.<\/p>\n

Bryson told a probate judge in Las Vegas last month that Brimhall and two other doctors determined that King received appropriate medical and hospice care, and that Toney was fulfilling King\u2019s will and wishes.<\/p>\n

Toney worked for King for 39 years and had power-of-attorney over his business affairs. She is named in King\u2019s will, filed in January 2007, as executor and beneficiary.<\/p>\n

The value of the estate has not been publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Medical examiners found no evidence to prove the allegation that blues legend B.B. King was poisoned before he died of natural causes in May, according to autopsy findings. Tests conducted after two of the musical icon\u2019s 11 adult children said their father had been murdered showed the cause of death was Alzheimer\u2019s disease, plus physical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}