A year after the Tony! Toni! Toné! guitarist died of cancer, his children are challenging a will they say was signed while he was receiving end-of-life care.
One year after D’Wayne Wiggins died in Oakland, California, following a battle with cancer, the grief inside his family has given way to something harder. His children are now in a legal fight over his estate, challenging a will they say was drafted and executed under circumstances that raise serious questions about their father’s mental state in his final months. The case is headed to trial in September.
Wiggins, the guitarist and co-founder of the R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, died on March 7, 2025. He left behind an estate his daughter Ilahn Wiggins values at approximately $700,000. What he left behind in terms of family relationships is proving far more complicated.
The dispute at the center of the case
Ilahn filed court documents laying out the family’s position. She and her two brothers contend that their father’s estate was taken over by his niece, Veleta Savannah, in a way that did not reflect D’Wayne’s true wishes. According to the filing, Veleta informed the children after their father’s death that she was the trustee of the estate and directed them not to enter D’Wayne’s home.
Ilahn also claims Veleta used a power of attorney document to withdraw $20,000 from D’Wayne’s bank account. The children do not believe Veleta is the rightful administrator of the estate, and they do not believe their father intended to exclude them from his inheritance.
The timing of the will is central to their argument. Ilahn and her siblings say the document was drafted and signed while D’Wayne was receiving end-of-life care and taking heavy medications that may have affected his judgment. They contend the will does not represent a decision their father made with a clear and unencumbered mind.
The other side of the story
Veleta disputes that account entirely. Her position is that D’Wayne was in full command of his faculties when he changed his will and that he made a deliberate choice to disinherit his children. She stands behind the validity of the document and the legitimacy of her role as trustee.
The disagreement between the two sides is not a matter of minor interpretation. One side is arguing that a dying man was taken advantage of in his final weeks. The other is arguing that the same man made a painful but purposeful decision about his legacy. A court will ultimately have to determine which version of events the evidence supports.
Context that matters
There is one additional layer to the story. D’Wayne married a woman named Dori Wiggins in the months before his death, meaning the period during which the disputed will was signed overlaps almost entirely with a significant personal transition in his life. Ilahn included this context in her filing without drawing an explicit legal connection, but the timing is part of the picture the court will consider.
Ilahn also emphasized in her filing that her father had a close and loving relationship with his children throughout his life, a characterization she offers as evidence that disinheriting them was not something he would have chosen freely.
What comes next
The trial is currently scheduled for September. Until then, the estate remains in dispute and the family’s relationship with Veleta stays adversarial. For a musician whose career was built around harmony, the litigation is a stark departure from the warmth that defined his public image.
Wiggins and his bandmates helped shape the sound of early 1990s R&B, blending live instrumentation with contemporary production in a way that influenced the genre well beyond the group’s commercial peak. His death at 64 closed a chapter. The legal fight over what he left behind is now writing a different kind of final act.
Story credit: TMZ