Just over a year after Bobbi Kristina Brown died at the age of 22, her boyfriend, Nick Gordon, has been found civilly liable in her death, reported 11 Alive.
Gordon failed to appear – for the second time – in Atlanta, Georgia, court Friday morning in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Bobbi Kristina’s estate last year, Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford said.
Because Gordon has failed to appear twice, the judge said anything alleged by the plaintiff is admitted through omission.
The judge will now determine the amount of damages to be awarded to Bobbi Kristina’s estate. The suit asked for $50,000,000.
“In court today, we finally finished a long journey for justice for Bobbi Kristina Brown,” Bobbi Kristina’s attorney R. David Ware told 11 Alive outside of court. “The court agrees with us, by striking Mr. Gordon’s answer that he is legally responsible for her death. The only thing left to prove is the value of her life. We intend to do that.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, the Brown family said, “We are praising God. This has been a long time coming. But all the judgments in the world won’t bring Krissy back.”
“We miss her every single day,” the statement continued. “Even when there’s justice, it’s not comfort. She was gone too soon, and we all have to live with that. I hope Nick lives with it every day for the rest of his life, because we sure are.”
Bobbi Kristina, the daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, was found unresponsive in the bathtub of her home on January 31, 2015. After six months of medically induced comas and a hospice stay, the rising star passed away on July 26.
Gordon has never been criminally charged in Brown’s death, but a source in the Fulton County District Attorney’s office tells PEOPLE that the criminal investigation is “still ongoing.”
“This won’t change anything in the criminal case. Generally speaking, it tends to the other way around: a criminal conviction is used in a civil case,” the source explains. “Obviously, if he had taken the stand in a civil case, we could have used what he said. But that’s not what happened here. The case is still ongoing, but there are no new updates at this time.”
Brown’s court-appointed conservator alleged that “Ms. Brown died due to a violent altercation with Defendant (Gordon) after which he placed her in a bathtub, unconscious, after he injected her with a toxic mixture,” according to legal documents related to the suit, which were obtained by local Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV.
According to the complaint – which was co-signed by Bobby – Gordon and Bobbi Kristina “became embroiled in a large argument” the night of the January incident, before he allegedly gave her a “toxic cocktail” that rendered her unconscious. Bobbi Kristina’s conservator further claims that Gordon then put Bobbi Kristina face down in a tub of cold water.
In response to the civil suit, Gordon’s former attorney Jose Baez initially said, “We have repeatedly said that Nick Gordon is innocent of any wrongdoing. He has not been charged with any crime. Enough is enough; let’s end this baseless speculation.”
Despite Gordon’s adamance that he wasn’t involved, Bobby said during a recent 20/20 interview, “The same thing that happened to my daughter is what happened to Whitney.”
He charged, “There’s only one person that was around both occasions.”
*Culled from People
