Homicide investigators search casino investor's home

Evidence technicians spent Wednesday looking for two handguns that police suspect were used in last week's slaying of Alvin Knight, 43, the ex-boyfriend of Ms. Varner's daughter, Janniss Scott Varner.

"I cannot comment on any portion of this investigation," Inspector Bill Rice, head of the department's homicide section, told The Detroit News in a report published today.

Ms. Varner, 61, is one of the main investors in Atwater Casino Group, which in partnership with Las Vegas-based Circus Circus Enterprises is one of three developers selected for a Detroit casino license.

Ms. Varner declined to comment Wednesday on the search of her home, the News said. Allegations that she and her daughter might have been involved in Knight's death were "absolutely ludicrous," she said.

But according to police and the search warrant, Ms. Varner has two .38 caliber revolvers registered in her name - the same type of weapon police believe was used to shoot Knight six times in the head.

Ms. Scott Varner, who raised Knight's 6-year-old son with Knight from 1993 to 1997 but was not his biological mother, could not be reached for comment, the newspaper said.

Police said they also found papers in Knight's apartment in which he detailed his custody battle with the two women over the boy, and death threats he allegedly received.

"Janniss (Scott Varner) threatened to have me killed over a dozen times and her behavior and her mother Nellie's behavior has become manipulating and calculating towards me," Knight wrote on April 6.

Ms. Varner and her daughter had become close to Knight's son, said attorney Gerald Cavellier, who represented the slain man in the custody fight. According to Cavellier and court records, the two women took custody of the boy on July 3 and refused to return him to his father.

On July 23, Wayne County Probate Judge Freddie Burton ordered the boy removed from Ms. Varner's home and returned to Knight, police said. Knight was killed the next day and nothing was taken from him, eliminating robbery as a motive, police said.

Neither Ms. Varner nor her daughter have been named as suspects, according to the Detroit Free Press. But the search warrant executed Wednesday said the custody dispute provided "a motive for the murder hire of the complainant."

On Tuesday, Juvenile Court Referee Kenneth Ross dismissed the custody petition Ms. Scott Varner had filed July 13, saying she had no legal rights to Knight's child. Ross told her and her mother during the hearing that they were to hand the child over to the court, but neither had done so as of Wednesday, Cavellier said.

Neither police nor Cavellier knew the boy's whereabouts.

Ms. Varner also is a real estate agent, a former University of Michigan regent and was in charge of fund-raising for Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer's 1993 campaign.

Under state law, casino-license applicants must tell the Michigan Gaming Control Board if they have ever been arrested, charged, indicted or merely detained in connection with a criminal matter.

A felony conviction would disqualify Ms. Varner from getting a license. But gaming regulators also will review issues surrounding their moral character, and criminal acts committed by an applicant's relatives may be considered.

In Ms. Varner's case, the homicide investigation "would not be an absolute disqualifier unless she were convicted," said Nelson Westrin, executive director of the gaming board.

"We are convinced that Nellie Varner is not involved," Atwater/Circus Circus spokesman Tom Shields told the Free Press. " ... she is a pillar of the community and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet."

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