Attorney: Executor Named In Gary Coleman’s 1999 Will Has Power Over Funeral Arrangements

A Utah attorney said Friday a client of his has been named the executor of Gary Coleman’s estate with the power to make funeral arrangements for the late actor.

Salt Lake City Attorney Kent Alderman said he has a will Coleman wrote in 1999 that he will take to a court sometime next week. Alderman wouldn’t reveal details of the will, including the name of the executor, but said Coleman will not be buried this weekend.

“We will submit that for probate next week and find out if this is the last will. We believe it is. Nobody’s come up with a more recent one,” Alderman said.

Frederick Jackman, an attorney for Coleman’s parents, said the person named in the will is Dion Mial, a friend and former manager of the former child TV star. A message left at a listing for Mial in Las Vegas was not immediately returned Friday.

Coleman’s estranged parents had been seeking to take custody of his body and return it to his boyhood home in Illinois once it was discovered that Coleman had divorced wife Shannon Price in 2008.

Coleman’s parents had been preparing to go to court, but Jackman said that’s no longer the case because they had seen a copy of the will naming Mial as its beneficiary.

“The Colemans from the start simply wanted to do what he wanted to have done,” Jackman said.

Shielia Erickson, a representative for Price, said she is grateful Coleman’s parents have backed off.

“That’s all we wanted to do is fill Gary’s wishes,” she said.

Coleman died May 28 Utah from a brain hemorrhage at age 42.