Jim Carrey faces wrongful death lawsuit for 2015 suicide of ex-girlfriend

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Actor Jim Carrey faces a wrongful death lawsuit following the suicidal drug overdose of his ex-girlfriend, who died nearly a year ago.

Michael Avenatti is representing the plaintiff, Mark Burton, who was married to Cathriona White, 30, at the time of her death.

"From time to time she had some emotional issues that she was working through," Avenatti said.

Carrey and White, a makeup artist, dated briefly in 2012 and were photographed together in May 2015.

In the lawsuit, Burton claims that Carrey obtained and provided the highly-addictive prescription drugs Ambien, Propranolol and Percocet using the name Arthur King. The lawsuit also states that those medications came from three pill bottles found near White's body at a Sherman Oaks home.

"The evidence in this case is fairly substantial that at a minimum he obtained controlled substances under a false name, which in and of itself is a violation of California law," Avenatti said.

The lawsuit goes on to state that Carrey attempted a cover-up, sending a bogus text message to White when she was already dead. The lawsuit said Carrey "pretended as though he had misplaced the drugs and insinuated White may have taken them from Carrey without his knowledge."

The coroner's report indicated a text message to that effect was sent from Carrey to White. Legal analyst Dana Cole said if the cover up intensions are true, Carrey could be in trouble.

"That could be what we call a 'consciousness of guilt' and that would not look very good for him," he said.

Although these are only allegations against Carrey, Cole said cases such as these can be challenging for celebrity defendants.

"Any celebrity or high-profile individual becomes a target defendant. Sometimes celebrities want to settle, even when no wrongdoing has occurred," he said.