Man who shot father-in-law to death while stalking estranged wife sentenced to 50 years

A man who shot his father-in-law to death at a mall while gunning for his estranged wife was sentenced to 50 years without parole. Michael James Young Jr, 25, was sentenced in a Lexington County, SC courtroom Monday, April 11 after pleading guilty to murder and assault with intent to kill for the shooting of his estranged wife, then 21 year old Shaunna Bell, and her father, a retired US Air Force officer, 49 year old Robert Lynn Bell, on June 13, 2007 in the Columbiana Center mall parking lot.

Before the deadly shooting four days shy of Father’s Day that year, Bell had called police to report that Young threatened to destroy the kiosk at the mall where she sold computers and told her he didn’t care if she lost her job. He also damaged her parents’ vehicle. She told police at the time that Young was known to carry a snub-nosed .38-caliber revolver.

Her father had been driving Bell to and from work for several weeks in an attempt to keep Young away from his daughter, said Robert Rikard, a Columbia lawyer hired by the family.

The Bells are suing the security company, saying that they did not do enough to protect Shaunna from her husband's stalking. While Young was banned from the mall, the supervisor on duty was not informed of this fact.

Shaunna said in her victim impact statement, "I think about getting married and not having anyone to walk me down the aisle. My father/daughter dance was taken from me. When my mom’s birthday or Mother’s Day comes around, I do not have anyone to secretly call for details of what she has been wanting.”

Young has accepted his responsibility for the mall shooting and has expressed his remorse “innumerable” times, his lawyer, John Delgado, said. “He considers it a life sentence, but he considers it a just sentence for what he did.” Despite Young’s imposing size, his aggression toward women “was his way of being able to assert himself in the world,” Delgado said, saying Young had no self esteem.
“He’s a completely different person now,” the lawyer said.

The 50 year sentence for murder will be served concurrently with the assault with intent to kill. In exchange for the guilty plea, Young saw four stalking charges, and single charges of forgery, telephone harassment, and assault with intent to kill. Judge Thomas Russo was the presiding judge over this case.

"Boyfriend" sentenced to 35 years for attempted murder of woman

A South Carolina man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for attacking his ex-girlfriend and her mother and forcing the ex-girlfriend to ride on his motorcycle, then pushing her off. Curtis Nealey of Darlington, SC, was convicted  on two counts of assault and battery with intent to kill, criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, and kidnapping and possession of a weapon during the commission of violent crime. Nealey's conviction in a Darlington County courtroom came after a two day trial.

Fourth Circuit Court Judge Michael Baxley sentenced Nealey to 20 years on the assault and battery charges, 10 years for criminal DV, and 30 years for kidnapping. These sentences will be served concurrently, but consecutively with a 5 year sentence for possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

The acts which led up to the sentencing took place on October 14, 2008. Nealey was spending time with his ex-girlfriend at her home when things began to become heated. When the victim's mother intervened, Nealey hit the mother over the head with a ceramic object, and forced the girlfriend at knifepoint to ride on his motorcycle.

Prosecutors were unable to determine exactly how fast the motorcycle was traveling, but were told by the victim that the vehicle was traveling at a high speed when she was thrown off. The ordeal continued when Nealey turned the motorcycle around to find the victim, who had survived the fall and attracted the attention of the driver of a passing 18-wheeler.

She grabbed on to the outside of the 18-wheeler and screamed “He’s trying to kill me,” as Nealey tried to pull her off. The driver of the 18-wheeler testified in court that Nealey left the scene after he told him he’d called the police. The woman suffered two broken arms that required plates and screws, head injuries, road burns as well as facial injuries as a result of the attack, McKenzie said.


Nealey was located and arrested by Darlington County authorities several days after [the] incident.

Because kidnapping and assault and battery with intent to kill are considered violent crimes by South Carolina, Nealey must serve 85% of his sentence.

Pregnant woman's "boyfriend" sentenced to life without parole for stabbing her to death

An Anderson, SC man who stabbed his pregnant girlfriend 25 times until she bled to death in front of her 7 year old daughter was sentenced to life without parole Thursday, October 22. Circuit Court Judge Cordell Maddox sentenced Christopher Ellis to life without parole after an hour of jury deliberations. The life without parole sentences were for the murder of Erica Olsen and her unborn child. These sentences will run consecutively with a 10 year sentence for possessing a weapon in the commission of a violent crime.

On Oct. 23, 2006, police went to an apartment in Fairview Gardens after dispatchers received a 911 hang-up call and heard a woman screaming in the background. Police found Olson with stab wounds covering her upper body. Ellis was lying on top of her, with wounds to his abdomen and neck. Olson’s 7-year-old daughter told police that Ellis had stabbed her mother and then stabbed himself.

Ellis, the only witness to testify on Wednesday and the only witness the defense called, said Olson had attacked him as he fell asleep in a recliner. According to him, he had been at another woman’s house that afternoon and Olson was angry that he had been cheating on her.

Ellis, who admitted being drunk and high on crack, said that the victim came after him with a knife while he was trying to fall asleep in a recliner. He claimed that he went to the bathroom and the victim stabbed him then. The perp claimed that he called 911, but the phone kept coming out of the wall.

The victim's 7 year old daughter, who testified for the prosecution, said that she awoke to her mother's screams, and saw the victim stabbed to death. The daughter also saw Ellis stab himself in the stomach afterwards.
 
Assistant Circuit Solicitor Catherine Huey said that Ellis' statement was incredible, and that the 911 tapes showed that he was trying to control the situation.
 
 “He told dispatchers ‘It’s OK.’ In all that time he never even asked for help. Both he and Erica are hurt and he never asks for help. They want you to believe the phone kept falling out of the wall. But the dispatcher knew something bad was going on. He heard the screaming and he kept calling back. … But by that time, you can’t hear Erica anymore.”
 
10th Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams said the crime was a warning to other women in abusive situations. Huey said thew victim waited too long to move out of the place she shared with Ellis.
 
Adams' statement is below.
 
“This was a horrific crime, committed in front of a 7-year-old child by someone with a previous history of domestic abuse against the victim, a fact I hope will not be lost on those in our community who today find themselves in abusive relationships. We are grateful to the jury and pleased that this defendant will be locked away for the rest of his life,” she said.
 
The victim's grandmother, Gayle Davison, said that she was satisfied that Ellis won't be able to hurt another woman again. “I think the fact that he will never be able to do this to anyone else is what we all needed. It will be three long years on the 23rd of this month. We’ve waited a long time for this.”

West Union, SC man sentenced to 17 years for voluntary manslaughter of wife

Tenth Circuit Court Judge James Williams sentenced a West Union, South Carolina man to 17 years in prison Wednesday. The man plead guilty to the shooting death of his wife after she told him that she was seeing another man. Because in SC, violent criminals must serve 85% of their sentence, Timothy Allen Bolt, 43, must serve 14 years of his sentence before early release, though 16 moths in jail have already by credited.

Bolt was originally charged with murder in the shooting of Charlie Ann Wood Bolt, 41, on March 9, 2008 at their home at 169 Town Road, West Union.

Assistant Tenth Circuit Solicitor David Wagner said Wednesday indications were that the Bolts had been involved in a domestic altercation and that Charlie Ann Bolt was informing her husband she was leaving him for another man when Timothy Bolt pulled a .45 cal. handgun from beneath his chair and shot her once through the head.

“It was done in the heat of passion,” Wagner said.

Julian Stoudemire, attorney for Bolt, said his client had little or no memory of the incident and alluded to the quantity of medications Bolt had been taking at the time as creating a different person than the man standing before the court.

“This was a very, very unfortunate incident,” Stoudemire said of the shooting and the aftermath.

Stoudemire said of his client that “He is not the type of person who would survive a long incarceration in some of our rougher prisons." Bolt himself said that he had been on anti anxiety medications at the time of the shooting.

"He’s my only child,” said Brenda Bolt, his mother. “I never had a minute’s trouble out of him.” Bolt, in white shirt and jeans, declined the chance to speak on his behalf, but through tears mumbled only, “I loved my wife.”

Before imposing sentence, Judge Williams said that “This is a bad case for everyone. We have two little girls without a mother or a father...I’m impressed by the people who spoke for you and by their sincerity.”

The Bolts' two daughters, ages 5 and 9, are in the care of relatives.

Florence, SC man sentenced to 40 years for maiming wife, burning apartment

A Florence, SC man convicted today of charges filed after he cut off his wife's hands and set fire to their apartment has been sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Kershaw County, SC judge earlier today. Tarus Tramaine Henry, 28, was convicted on counts of assault and battery with intent to kill, 2nd degree arson, and unlawful neglect of a child in the June 2008 attack on the 24 year old woman.

12th Circuit Court Judge Ralph King Anderson sentenced Henry to 20 years for the arson and another 20 years for the assault charge, both counts to run consecutively. Anderson also sentenced Henry to 10 years in prison for the child neglect charges, but those counts will run concurrently with the arson and assault charges.

Henry’s 24-year-old wife was on a ventilator at a Florence hospital and both of her hands had been cut off, a victim’s advocate told Magistrate Judge Belinda Timmons during a June 24, 2008, bond hearing.

The woman also suffered stab wounds through her skull, her spine and her chest, the victim’s advocate said.

The victim’s advocate also relayed information she said the victim told her family. In those conversations, the victim said she was left in the apartment after the attack and crawled out for help.

A witness told deputies he saw the victim leave the apartment covered in blood with what appeared to be large gashes in her head and arm, according to sheriff’s office reports.

The suspect took the woman to a Florence emergency room and left with two children — the couple’s now 19-month-old child and a 5-year-old child of Henry’s from a previous marriage, according to sheriff’s office reports.

The trial lasted three days, from jury selection Monday to the verdict today. The victim testified Wednesday morning and the perpetrator testified Wednesday afternoon.

Twelfth Circuit Solicitor Ed Clements III said that he was "very pleased with the outcome of this case. It was a horrible, horrible case and I am very proud of the work done by Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone and his office, and am proud of Assistant (12th Circuit) Solicitor Stephen Hill, who prosecuted the case.”

SC mother believes missing 31 year old daughter dead

By MITCH WEISS
Associated Press Writer

When Susie Fernandez drives, she tries to glimpse every face in passing cars. In stores, she glances at people in aisles and checkout lines. She's been doing it ever since her daughter, a nurse and devoted mother of a little boy, vanished in September.

"You try to have faith," said Fernandez, who fears her 31-year-old daughter is dead. "Not knowing what happened is just unbearable. It just consumes your life. You just have this pain in your heart that won't go away."

The sharpest pangs come from two thoughts: Fernandez said she believes she knows who is responsible for her daughter's disappearance, and she doesn't feel anybody outside her family is paying attention.

"At times, it seems like no one really cares except us," Fernandez, 47, said recently as she sat in her living room, surrounded by photos of her four children and grandson, Jamel Good Jr.

Maria Fernandez was last seen Sept. 3. Her boyfriend - the father of her son - initially told police he picked her up from work that day. But authorities say Jamel Good's story is muddled. He hasn't been charged, but Union County sheriff's investigators say Good is a "person of interest" in the disappearance and is not cooperating.

His attorney, Thomas White, disagrees. "He's been cooperative with them. There's no evidence that links him to any kind of crime," White said.

Meanwhile, Fernandez's relatives have been frustrated by a lack of new information.
In their minds are details of how authorities handled another missing persons case in the area.
When Susan Smith told police in 1994 that a man stole her car with her two children inside, a large-scale manhunt ensued. Investigators later discovered Smith had killed the boys.
"Where are all those officers now?" said Fernandez's aunt, Toni Davis, 42. "Where is the media?"
While thousands of people go missing each year, cases involving white children or attractive white women typically are the ones that attract media attention. Experts say it takes a passionate advocate to bring attention to a case involving a black person, such as Fernandez.
So her mother has been trying to get people interested. Susie Fernandez has posted fliers asking anyone with information to contact police. She's offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Inside her house, off a busy road leading to this small city in north-central South Carolina, Maria Fernandez's three siblings recently listened as their mother recounted her daughter's life.
Fernandez was a popular nurse at the Ellen Sagar Nursing Home and at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, working two jobs to support her son. She worked long hours, but was at the school bus stop with the boy every morning.

Susie Fernandez said her daughter dated Good for nearly nine years and was living with him at his father's house. But in early September, Maria spent several nights at her mother's home, saying she was leaving Good because he refused to get a job.

On Sept. 3, Good picked up Fernandez at her mother's house because her car was in the shop. He drove her to the nursing home and when her shift ended at 2:30 p.m., Good was waiting.
And that's when the story gets murky.

Authorities say Good told police they went together to look at a new house. Later, Good said he dropped Fernandez off at his father's house and left. When he returned hours later, she was gone.

Numerous attempts to contact Good and his father, who authorities say live together, were unsuccessful. No one answered the door at the house on two visits. An answering machine said it wasn't accepting messages. White said that he hasn't heard from his client in two months, but that police know everything his client knows.

Good has been convicted of several crimes in the past 10 years: driving with a suspended license, drug possession and writing a fraudulent check. With each case, he either received a suspended sentence, probation or a small fine.

Sheriff's investigator Terry Humphries said police don't have enough evidence to charge anyone. He said police have searched several locations and found pieces of Maria's broken cell phone on a roadside.
Humphries said Fernandez would not have willingly left her son.

"She was totally dedicated to her child. There was no way she could leave him behind," he said.
Meanwhile, Fernandez's relatives say they are unable to see Jamel Good Jr. because his father has custody and refuses to let them visit.

As she was preparing for church one recent Sunday, Susie Fernandez dropped to her bed and began sobbing. Her 12-year-old daughter embraced her, whispering, "It's OK, momma. She's in a better place."

Later, looking out her front door, Fernandez brushed back a tear.
"There are so many nights I just wonder: Where are you? What happened?" she said. "I just want to bring my baby back home."

Suburban Charleston, SC police officer allegedly stalks, rapes woman

A Hanahan, SC police detective who dated a woman briefly before allegedly raping her is being placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Cassie Watson, 40, was charged with 1st degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, and possession of a gun (alleged to be his service weapon) during a violent crime. The North Charleston native was being held on $250,000 bail at the Charleston County Detention Center, but bailed out Tuesday, August 19.

Watson met the victim 2 years ago on an online dating service, then called her until a year ago, when they went out on a date. The victim found Watson to be untrustworthy after he picked her up for dinner and a movie. "I didn't trust him from the get-go -He was possessive, controlling, and he was calling me names.” She brushed off all contact with him, and he obliged until a few weeks ago.

"I just kind of brushed it off, and I thought, 'OK, I don't ever have to see him again,' " she said. "He quit calling, and then, all of a sudden, two weeks ago, he popped up at my door."

The woman said Watson came to her home several times in recent weeks, and she became increasingly concerned.

On Sunday, Watson walked into her open front door and plopped himself down in a chair, she said. Watson pointed the gun in her face and, according to the affidavit, she thought that if she did not do what he ordered, she would end up in a "body bag." He forced her to disrobe and raped her, the affidavit said.

She called authorities about 10 minutes later, she said. She was taken to Medical University Hospital for an examination, a police report said. The 37-year-old was recovering at home Monday night and agreed to be interviewed if she could remain anonymous. The Post and Courier does not normally identify rape victims.

Bob Koon, Watson’s neighbor of 34 years, said that he didn’t believe he could do such a thing. . "I find it hard to believe. I've known him since he was 6 years old. He's a swell guy. I don't understand."

Watson worked for the Hanahan PD for 2 years, and previously worked for the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Man gets 10 years in federal prison for felon in posession charges stemming from gunpoint rape of girlfriend

U.S. District Judge Terry L. Wooten sentenced a 37 year old Florence, SC man to 10 years in federal prison for the rape of his then girlfriend.

Donnie Wayne Sheffield was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm stemming from a January 2006 attack where after a cocaine binge, Sheffield, armed with a 12 gauge shotgun, beat and raped his girlfriend, threatening to hang her. She convinced her perpetrator to let her go to work before her coworkers got suspicious and called Florence, SC police – which they did anyway after she joined them.

Because Sheffield was on parole, officers coordinated with the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services and the U.S. Marshals Service to arrest Sheffield. An arrest team entered the victim’s house, where they arrested Sheffield in a back bedroom. Agents seized the shotgun and the noose, still hanging from a light fixture in the house.

Sheffield was previously convicted in 2001 for a burglary that involved breaking into another girlfriend’s house and beating and holding her hostage. He has other convictions for failure to stop for a blue light, larceny, and distribution of an imitation controlled substance.

U.S. Attorney Rose Mary Parham prosecuted this case, with help from the ATF and SLED (State Law Enforcement Division).

Rapist pleads guilty to strangling coed with her bikini in SC court

By SEANNA ADCOX Associated Press Writer
Posted: Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008

PICKENS, S.C. A convicted sex offender spotted a college student outside her South Carolina apartment two years ago, then slipped through her patio door and raped and strangled her, leaving the bikini top still wrapped around her neck, according to a confession revealed during his guilty plea Tuesday.

Jerry Buck Inman, 37, admitted to authorities shortly after his June 2006 arrest that he raped and killed 20-year-old Tiffany Marie Souers of Ladue, Mo., but his statements to police were not made public until Tuesday.

Inman could face the death penalty when he is sentenced Sept. 8. A defense psychiatrist testified that's exactly what he wants.
"He wishes to die for what he's done," said Dr. Donna Schwartz-Watts, a forensic psychiatrist with the University of South Carolina. "He has consistently stated that."The psychiatrist said Inman takes medication for a mood disorder, but "he absolutely knows what he's doing."

The Clemson University engineering student's body was discovered May 26, 2006, at her apartment just a few miles from this campus in rural northwestern South Carolina.

Authorities said Inman's DNA matched samples taken from Souers' apartment, and he was arrested during a nationwide manhunt near his mother's home in Dandridge, Tenn., about two weeks after Souers' body was found.

Inman, bald with tattoos on his neck, both arms and chest, still appeared menacing in court despite handcuffs and shackles. He stared straight ahead during much of the court hearing, biting his lip as he answered yes or no to basic questions.

Inman also faces charges in the attempted rape of a 24-year-old woman in Rainsville, Ala., and in the rape of a 28-year-old woman in Sevierville, Tenn.Authorities have said those crimes occurred in the days leading up to Souers' death.

Inman said everything in handwritten confessions he gave to police shortly after his arrest were true. "I did not go there to kill her. I don't want to talk about the sex part, but I did have sex with her," he wrote.

Inman wrote that he knew Souers would recognize him, so he killed her. He bound and strangled her with what he found in her room.

"I knew Tiffany was dead because she stopped struggling," he wrote.

Inman spent about 18 years in prison in North Carolina and Florida for rapes committed in those states as a teenager. He was free for about nine months before his June 2006 arrest. In his confession, Inman wrote he was living with a cousin at the time and "was not adjusting well to being out of jail, so I decided to get away."

Inman, who finished the eighth grade and previously worked construction, wrote that he'd run out of money when he reached Clemson and was "looking for some place to rob." He said he spotted Souers on her front porch earlier in the day, then drove around until nearly 1 a.m., went in through her patio door and woke her up.

Prosecutor Bob Ariail said Inman later tried to use Souer's credit card six times at two different bank ATM machines but didn't enter the correct personal identification number. In his statements, Inman said Souer's had given him her PIN, but he'd forgotten it.

Rape trial of SC man accused of assault of great grandmother ends in mistrial

(Original Post 6-4-08)

The rape trial of a man accused of raping a now 84 year old woman started Monday, June 2 with the detective reading Brandon Vernard Johnson’s confession in the June 9, 2006 rape. He is charged with holding the great-grandmother captive while raping her for nearly 9 hours. The captivity happened after he escorted her back from a grocery store.

On the night of the incident, she reportedly cried for help and called her assailant a "sick son of a bitch," according to a Charleston County Sheriff's Office official who responded to her Harbor View Road home and testified this week.

Another sheriff's official quoted Johnson, now 24, as saying the sex was consensual but that he ran out of the house because the appearance of a young black man having sex with an older white woman didn't look good.

The woman was in the courtroom for the start of the trial. Charleston County sheriff deputy Detective Matthew Lariccia testified on Monday that Johnson asked to speak to authorities, and that he admitted “I need help” and “I wish there was something I could do to undo what I did.”

9th Circuit Assistant Solicitor Elizabeth Gordon said the woman’s nosy neighbors led to Johnson being caught and that the woman, who lived on the same street for 3 decades, had her independence robbed and “after that night, she has never been able to return to that house.”

Defense lawyer Beatie Butler said that things are not always what they seemed, and that Johnson wasn’t fully aware of what happened.

Johnson was free on bail on drug trafficking and gun charges in Summerville, SC when the attack occurred.

(Update 6-6-08)

The deliberations started yesterday, with jurors spending 2 hours deliberating Johnson's verdict.
After hearing case testimony for most of the week, Circuit Judge Steven John sent the members of the jury home Thursday night following two hours of deliberations at the Charleston County Judicial Center.

In her closing argument, 9th Circuit Assistant Solicitor Elizabeth Gordon said the woman's battered condition, bruised body and ripped clothing was enough to prove that a rape occurred.
"Do you think someone would consent to that kind of pain?" Gordon asked the jurors, adding that "someone who consented doesn't stand in the living room, naked, yelling for help."

Prior to the attack, the woman was known to walk the neighborhood and visit nearby stores. She reportedly suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome in the wake of the incident.

Defense lawyer Beattie Butler made several points in his closing argument, including that the woman's dementia manifested while Johnson was in the home and led to an event.

The attack is alleged to have begun about 8 p.m. on June 9, 2006, and lasted until early in the morning on June 10, 2006. According to case testimony and evidence, Johnson was arrested outside the home just after he fled.

Johnson faces 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

(Update 6-7-08) The jury, after 10 hours of deliberations over 2 days, has declared a mistrial. Statements from the victim, who is suffering from Alzheimers were not admitted, a fact that prosecutors say hampered their case.

Ninth Circuit Assistant Solicitor Elizabeth Gordon said she intends to try Johnson again, but will consult with the victim's family. Johnson was taken back to the Charleston County Detention Center where he has been held since the incident.

Johnson's family declined comment, but the elderly woman's family said they were stunned by the outcome. "This assault never seems to end," a spokesperson said.

Jurors declined to speak in detail afterward. "It's been a long week and I don't want to talk about it," one said.

"Close, very close," another said of the deliberations. "That's all I'm going to say."
The jury had three options to consider:

--First-degree criminal sexual conduct, which covers nonconsensual sex with aggravating factors such as robbery, confinement or burglary.

--Third-degree criminal sexual conduct, which can cover improper sex with someone who is mentally unable to consent.

--Assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.

Hours into the deliberation Friday, and with no decision on the horizon, the jury sent a note to Circuit Judge Steven H. John asking if it were possible to consider the much less severe charge of simple battery. The judge declined, and the mistrial was declared later in the day.

Defense lawyer Beatie Butler said the case was difficult for both sides, and that Johnson, impaired because of drinking, and the woman, impaired because of Alzheimer's, may not have known what was going on.

"A significant number of jurors thought Brandon was not guilty," Butler said, adding that others thought him guilty only of a simple assault.

The woman's family said late Friday that they dread having to sit through another trial. But they also said they know Johnson's family, likewise, is in pain.

"We feel for them," a spokesperson said. "Not him, but his family."

Teacher, accused of inappropriate comments with female students, charged with raping woman, commits suicide

(Originally Posted 12-25-07)

West Ashley (South Carolina) teacher Scott Larue Knight, accused of making sexually inappropriate comments to female students, is charge with raping a woman, according to the Charleston County Sheriff's Office.

The Charleston Post & Courier has more in their story, W. Ashley teacher charged with rape:

Deputies arrested Scott Larue Knight, 39, Friday on charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, sheriff's Maj. John Clark said.
Affidavits describe an attack in September at Knight's home at Concord West of the Ashley on 45 Sycamore Ave., Clark said.

Knight is accused of pushing a woman in her early 30s into his room and locking the door, then forcibly raping her, Clark said. Knight was arrested at home. He left the Charleston County Detention Center on Saturday after posting $20,000 bail, according to court documents and the jail. Knight has been on administrative leave from his teaching job since being arrested Nov. 14 on two counts of first- degree harassment, according to the school district.

The harassment charges stem from incidents with inappropriate comments directed at teenage students. A 16 year old girl claimed that starting in June, Knight started to make inappropriate comments directed at her in front of her boyfriend. The comments started back up when the school year started, and Knight allegedly started staring at her in her classroom while outside. Her parents made a report to her school's administration. Another girl, 14, reported similar comments made allegedly by Knight.

Update (12-31-07) Knight commited suicide on the 27th by crashing his car into a tree. A suicide note was found.