Skip to main content

Gary Coleman estate battle loses a player

By Alan Duke, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Coleman's former agent withdraws from estate fight
  • Dion Mial was named executor in Coleman's 1999 will
  • Mial's lawyer says discovery of 2005 will convinced him to withdraw

(CNN) -- Gary Coleman's former agent Dion Mial has withdrawn from the legal battle for control of the late actor's estate, his lawyer said Monday.

Mial, who Coleman named as executor in a 1999 will, dropped his petition to be special administrator after a will written in 2005 was presented to the Utah court, attorney Kent Alderman said.

"Based upon the most recently proffered will, it doesn't look like we have a dog in this fight," Alderman said.

Mial's withdrawal leaves Shannon Price, the woman Coleman divorced in 2008, and Anna Gray, a Coleman friend, as the only parties contesting for control of Coleman's estate.

Anna Gray, a Portland, Oregon, resident, was named by Coleman as executor in the 2005 will, according to a petition filed Friday by Gray.

"If it turns out that will is not valid, we will be back," Alderman said.

Price, 24, filed an unsigned 2007 will along with her claim that she was still legally married to Coleman as his common law wife, despite the divorce.

"Notwithstanding the divorce decree, Price and the decedent continued to have a romantic relationship and engaged in romantic and sexual relations," the petition said.

Coleman was living with Price in Santaquin, Utah, when he suffered a fall at home last month and died two days later of a brain hemorrhage in a Provo hospital.

A hearing is set for Monday afternoon for lawyers for Gray and Price to argue about which woman will immediately take temporary control as special administrator.

Coleman's remains are at a Utah mortuary, awaiting direction from Utah District Judge James Taylor as to who can decide what happens to the body.

"To strip Price's ability to make these decisions and to deprive her from acting for and on behalf of her deceased spouse, at least until a hearing is scheduled, would be a manifest injustice and would strip her of every shred of dignity that she possesses," Price's petition said.

Before resigning as special administrator, Mial had ordered Price to stay away from the Utah home the couple shared before Coleman's death and to return all of his property, including a truck.

CNN's Brittany Kaplan contributed to this report.