Georgia Lawyers want DA to say Brown's death wasn't murder

ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyers for Bobbi Kristina Brown’s partner on Tuesday called on a prosecutor to tell the public she wasn’t murdered.

Joe Habachy and Jose Baez, attorneys for Nick Gordon, released a statement calling on Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard to acknowledge there was no evidence of wrongdoing in Brown’s death.

“Frankly, the right thing for the District Attorney’s office to do right now is to tell the public the truth ... that this was an accident ... or even a suicide, but not a murder,” the statement says. “And the right thing for everyone to do is let Nick live his life now and let Bobbi Kristina rest in peace.”

Howard spokeswoman Claire LaBriola said in an email that the district attorney had no comment. Howard said last week his office’s investigation into Brown’s death would continue.

Brown, daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, was found face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta townhome Jan. 31, 2015. She died in hospice care July 26.

Howard had asked a judge to seal the report from Bobbi Kristina’s autopsy while his office investigates. The judge did so in September, but last week ordered it unsealed after two television stations challenged it.

The autopsy report shows that her face being immersed in water, along with drug intoxication, led to Brown’s death. The medical examiner couldn’t determine whether her death was an accident.

Habachy and Baez said Howard fought to conceal evidence that Brown’s death “was nothing more than a tragic accident.”

“By failing to acknowledge that there is simply no evidence of any wrongdoing, they have in essence helped feed the slanderous media frenzy regarding Nick Gordon,” Habachy and Baez wrote.

Howard said last week his office had “valid public safety and investigative” reasons for asking that the autopsy report be sealed. He has said very little about his office’s investigation and hasn’t said whether he has a suspect.

Brown’s estate filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Gordon accusing him of giving her a “toxic cocktail” and putting her face down in water. Gordon’s lawyers have denounced those accusations.