Aaron Carter's Family Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit
The wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Aaron Carter's 4-year-old son, Princeton Lyric Carter, has reached a partial settlement. Court documents filed in Los Angeles County on May 12 show that Amen Clinics and psychiatrist Dr. John Faber have agreed to pay a confidential sum as "full and final resolution" of the claims against them. The settlement value is described as "within the ballpark" of the damages sought — less than $325,000.
The case is not over. Three defendants remain, and a trial is scheduled for October.
How Aaron Carter Died
Carter, 34, was found dead in his bathtub at his home in Lancaster, California on November 5, 2022. His housekeeper discovered him. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner ruled the cause of death as drowning after a combination of difluoroethane — a gas found in compressed air cans that can be inhaled to produce a brief high, commonly known as huffing — and alprazolam, the generic form of Xanax. The examiner concluded that Carter had been incapacitated by the substances while in the bathtub and slipped beneath the surface.
Carter had been open about his struggles with substance use and mental health for years. He had spoken publicly about diagnoses including multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, and anxiety — conditions that led him to seek treatment from multiple providers. In 2019, his brother Nick Carter and twin sister Angel Carter Conrad sought restraining orders against Aaron, citing what Nick described as his "increasingly alarming behavior" — including alleged threats to kill Nick's pregnant wife and unborn child. A Las Vegas judge granted Nick's order in November 2019; Angel received hers separately around the same time.
His death came at a period when, by many accounts, he was trying to stabilize his life. He had welcomed his son Princeton Lyric with fiancée Melanie Martin just over a year earlier, in November 2021, and the two had spoken publicly about their hopes for their family's future.
What the Lawsuit Alleged
Martin filed the wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Princeton Lyric, alleging that two doctors and two pharmacies had given Carter "excessively high and unreasonably frequent amounts" of Xanax in the months leading up to his death. The core argument was that the defendants contributed to Carter's death by overprescribing a powerful benzodiazepine to a patient with a documented history of substance abuse issues — and that a more careful standard of care could have prevented the outcome.
Amen Clinics — a network of mental health clinics founded by psychiatrist and author Daniel Amen — and Dr. John Faber pushed back on those claims throughout the litigation. Their defense argued they had complied fully with the standard of care for prescriptions and that Carter's death was primarily caused by the huffing of difluoroethane, not by anything they had prescribed. The settlement they've agreed to does not constitute an admission of liability.
What Comes Next
The partial settlement closes the chapter on Amen Clinics and Dr. Faber but leaves the lawsuit very much alive. The remaining defendants — dentist Jason Mirabile, pharmacy chain Walgreens, and Santa Monica Medical Plaza Pharmacy — have not settled and are scheduled to face trial in October 2026. The claims against them center on the same core allegation: that the pattern of prescribing Xanax to Carter was reckless given his history and that it contributed to his death.
Princeton Lyric Carter was four years old this past November. He will grow up without his father. The lawsuit filed in his name is an attempt to hold accountable those his mother believes helped take that father away — and that case, at least in part, is still headed to trial.
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