Judge orders managers for late Johnny Winter to pay $226,000 in damages in lawsuit alleging theft

A Connecticut judge has settled a bitter feud over the estate of the late legendary blues guitarist Johnny Winter, ordering his managers to pay $226,000 in damages for improper payments they received after his 2014 death and rejecting their claim to the rights to his music.

Relatives of Winter's late wife, Susan, sued Winter's manager, Paul Nelson, and his wife, Marion, in 2020, claiming the Nelsons swindled more than $1 million from Winter's music business. The Nelsons denied the allegations and countersued. They accused the relatives of improperly having Paul Nelson ousted as the beneficiary of Winter's estate, and they claimed ownership of his music rights.

After a seven-day trial before a judge in January 2024, Judge Trial Referee Charles Lee ruled Friday that the Nelsons received improper payments and made improper withdrawals from Winter's accounts, but rejected claims they committed fraud, mismanagement and breach of contract.

“The court finds that the conduct for which it has awarded the damages set forth above was negligent or at least arguably legitimate,” Lee wrote in a 54-page decision that also rejected the claims in the Nelsons' countersuit.

The judge said the Nelsons' most serious impropriety was withdrawing $112,000 from Winter's business account and depositing it into one of their own accounts in 2019, without listing Susan Winter as a signatory on their account. Susan Winter owned all of her husband's assets — valued at about $3 million at the time of his death. The judge said punitive damages may be imposed on the Nelsons because of that transfer.

Paul Nelson, who managed Johnny Winter's business from 2005 to 2019 and played guitar in his band, died in March 2024 from a heart attack during a music tour. Marion Nelson, who did bookkeeping for the Winters and the music business, did not immediately return an email message Monday. The Nelsons' lawyers did not immediately return phone and email messages. It wasn't clear if they planned to appeal.

Susan Winter died from lung cancer in October 2019. Months before her death, she removed Paul Nelson as her successor trustee to her family trust, which included all of her late husband's assets. She named her sister and brother, Bonnie and Christopher Warford, from Charlotte, North Carolina, as her new successor trustees, and they sued the Nelsons.

The Warfords' lawyers did not immediately return phone and email messages Monday. Phone numbers for the Warfords listed in public records were no longer in service.

The Nelsons claimed the Warfords took advantage of Susan Winter and had her sign legal documents while she was medicated near the end of her life. They also alleged the Warfords soured their relationship with Susan Winter with false embezzlement claims. The Warfords denied those allegations.

The judge ruled that the Warfords were entitled to damages because of improper payments the Nelsons received, including $68,000 in royalty payments from a 2016 auction of Winter's assets, $69,000 in cash withdrawals, $18,000 in expense reimbursements and $15,000 in other royalty payments.

The Warfords also were awarded $56,000 that remains in one of the Nelsons' accounts, the same account used in the $112,000 transfer criticized by the judge. In 2020, the Nelsons transferred about $151,000 out of that account to the Warfords’ lawyers.

Lee also rejected claims by the Warfords that Paul Nelson should not have received $300,000 in auction proceeds from the sale of three of Johnny Winter's guitars, because Winter promised those guitars to Paul Nelson.

John Dawson Winter III was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. He burst onto the world blues scene in the 1960s, dazzling crowds with his fast licks while his trademark long, white hair flew about from under his cowboy hat. He and his brother Edgar — both born with albinism — were both renowned musicians. Johnny Winter, who played at Woodstock in 1969, was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1988.

Rolling Stone magazine listed him as the No. 63 best guitar player of all time in 2015. He released more than two dozen albums and was nominated for several Grammy Awards, winning his first one posthumously in 2015 for Best Blues Album for “Step Back.” Nelson produced the album and also took home a Grammy for it.

Johnny Winter, who spent two decades living in Easton, Connecticut, before his death, battled heroin addiction for years and credited Nelson, whom he met in 1999, with helping him get off the opioid methadone and revive his career, according to the 2014 documentary, “Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty.”