On Wednesday, it was reported that Tyler Perry’s 26-year-old nephew, Gavin Porter, was found dead in his cell in a Louisiana prison. Porter was serving a 20-year sentence for having murdered his father in 2016 in front of his mother, Melva Porter, who is Tyler Perry’s sister. Prison officials informed the family that Ported had committed suicide by hanging himself with his bed sheets.  to be conducted on his nephew by a pathologist he selected himself.  “I want to be clear that we are not a family of conspiracy theorists and want to believe that there was no foul play just as the sheriff said publicly,” the famous filmmaker told TMZ. 

He hired well-known pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden, who was involved in investigating the cases of John F. Kennedy, O.J. Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein. TMZ has now reported the results of this second autopsy and they point to Porter’s death being a suicide. Baden is supposedly 98% sure that there was no foul play involved in the inmate’s death. “The answers don’t take away grief, but it surely gives room for grieving to take its course,” Tyler said in regards to these findings. 

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Earlier this week, Tyler also expressed that he had faith in the possibility of Porter’s redemption had his life not been cut short. “Call me naive, but it was my hope that after serving his time, and really reflecting and showing much remorse and asking God for forgiveness, that he would have been able to come to work for me, joining  But that day will never come.”