Ex-Wife Shannon Price Wants Control of Gary Coleman Estate
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CBS/AP) Gary Coleman's ex-wife, Shannon Price, filed a petition on Thursday seeking control of the former child actor's estate.
PICTURES: Gary Coleman: 1968-2010
Price, 24, is looking to be appointed as the special administrator of the 42-year-old's estate in a petition filed in the 4th District Court in Provo, claiming she still is Coleman's common law wife and should be the one to make funeral arrangements. The two legally divorced in 2008.
Following Coleman's death from a brain hemorrhage on May 28, documents filed by Price's attorneys say they have an unsigned will drawn up in 2005 that names Price as the conservator of his estate. Among the papers is a 2007 handwritten note with Coleman's signature intended to amend any earlier wills and name Price as the sole heir of his earnings, home, toy trains and other property.
"I made this change of free will and was not coerced in any way," says the note dated Sept. 4, 2007, less than a month after Coleman and Price married. "This I have done because of my personal selfishness and my weakness and I love her with all my heart."
In Coleman's last known two-page will from 1999, Coleman states that he wished to be cremated and wants funeral guest limited to "those who have no financial ties to me and who can look each other in the eyes and say they really cared personally for Gary Coleman," according to the will. It also namea former manager Dion Mial, 46, as the estate's executor.
While the former child star of the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" may appear to be financially wealthy, according to People.com, the actor died relatively broke, with his main asset being his $315,000 Santaquin, Utah, home, about 65 miles south of Salt Lake City.
In court documents accompanying the will, Mial expresses concern that Price "has been removing personal property from [Coleman's] home, which has not been inventoried or accounted for."
Mial has lashed out against Coleman's ex, accusing Price of attempting to profit off Coleman's death by selling interviews and pictures.
Coleman was still conscious when he was taken to a hospital, but slipped into unconsciousness the next day and was placed on life support. Price referred to Coleman as her husband when she called 911 on May 26. It was Price - named in an advanced health care directive - who ordered that he be taken off life support.
A hearing is scheduled for next Monday.
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