Judge awards damages of $36M in Bobbi Kristina Brown death case

ATLANTA — Lawyers for Bobbi Kristina Brown's estate say a judge in Atlanta has ordered her partner, Nick Gordon, to pay $36 million in a wrongful death case.

Brown, the daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, was found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta townhome in January 2015. She was in a coma for six months before dying in hospice care at age 22.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford ruled in September that Gordon repeatedly failed to meet court deadlines in the case. His order said that meant the conservator of her estate wins by default.

Bobby Brown shared his emotion in a Fulton County courtroom Thursday as he talked about Bobbi Kristina Brown.

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“This one, she was a baby girl. We were on tour,” Bobby Brown testified.

Bobby Brown said the wrongful death suit against Gordon isn't about the money, but about holding him responsible.

“When did you first suspect that Nick may be responsible?” Bobby Brown was asked on the stand.

“The moment I heard about it. My daughter to be found face down in a tub when she's definitely afraid of tubs. I know he had something to do with it,” Bobby Brown said.

Bobby Brown told the court when he thinks of his daughter, he thinks bigger than big and stronger than strong.

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“She was just super talented. She had her mother's voice,” Bobby Brown said.

Bedford ordered that Gordon pay damages of $36,250,000.

Bobby Brown said his daughter died two days before she was scheduled to go out to California to record with him.

He said he saw Bobbi Kristina two times after Houston’s death and that one time when he wanted to see her, he heard Gordon on the phone in the background.

“He was in the background saying, ‘I stay strapped over here,’ meaning I keep guns,” Bobby Brown testified.

Gordon wasn't in court Thursday. He hasn't been criminally charged in Bobbi Kristina's death.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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