The 43-year-old man wrote of once being locked inside former University Regent Nellie Varner's garage before he ripped through the door. Searchers of Varner's home after Knight's death found bullet fragments in the back of the garage, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.
Varner, 61, is a former University political science professor and prominent businesswoman. She is a co-founder of Atwater Entertainment, which along with Las Vegas-based Circus Circus Enterprises awaits state licensing for a Detroit casino.
Janniss Scott Varner - Varner's 39-year-old daughter - lived with Knight until last year and helped him raise the 6-year-old boy identified by the Free Press as Alvin Norwood. She was not the boy's biological mother, but had sought him in a custody battle.
According to court records and Knight's attorney, Gerald Cavellier, the two women took custody of the boy on July 3 and refused to return him to his father. On July 23, Chief Wayne County Probate Judge Freddie Burton Jr. ordered the boy removed from Varner's home and returned to Knight, who was killed the next day. Alvin since has been placed in a foster home.
According to court documents, police during a search of Varner's home seized calendars, letters and journals. Some of the letters detail a plan to kill Knight, police have said.
Police had obtained a warrant to search Varner's house Wednesday because two guns registered to her matched the type of weapon used to shoot Knight in the head six times. They have not located either handgun and said they still don't know who shot Knight.
Neither woman has yet been named as a suspect, but police have said they wanted to question them. Knight's attorney said his client acted nervously before his death as the two met just hours earlier to prepare for a custody hearing.
"I can tell you that his fears were well-founded, obviously, because he was killed,'" Cavellier said.
08-03-98
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