Inmate says he's Prince's son and heir
AFP
May 11, 2016 11:03 MYT
May 11, 2016 11:03 MYT
The music legend died suddenly at age 57 on April 21 without leaving any known will.
A 39-year-old inmate has said that he is the son of pop icon Prince, seeking a DNA test that could make him heir to the late singer's storied estate.
A lawyer for Carlin Q. Williams, who is from Kansas City, lodged an objection to a court filing by Prince's sister Tyka Nelson who said the singer had no children.
Williams is serving a sentence for gun possession in a stolen car and is not due to leave the high-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado until late 2020.
His mother, Marsha Henson, submitted a sworn statement saying that she met the singer -- whose full name is Prince Rogers Nelson -- at a Kansas City hotel in July 1976.
The two drank wine and then he took her to his room at the now defunct Midwest Hotel where they had unprotected sex, she said.
The lawyer requested a DNA test to determine whether Prince was the father of Williams.
The petition claims that Williams "believes he is or may be the sole surviving legal heir" of the music legend, who died suddenly at age 57 on April 21 without leaving any known will.
A 2014 court document on Williams' sentencing said that he had a troubled childhood and wrote: "His father had no presence at all in his life."
The sentencing memorandum said that Williams had seven half-siblings and that he dropped out of school in 10th grade before being convicted on drug offenses.
The extent of Prince's fortune remains unclear but it is likely to be considerable as the acclaimed artist had sold more than 100 million records.
An heir would also have control over Prince's legendary vault at his Paisley Park estate near Minneapolis, which is said to hold massive amounts of unreleased material.
Prince's sister and five living half-siblings have been named as heirs and assigned a special administrator to handle his estate.
Prince had a son in 1996 with his then wife, dancer Mayte Garcia, but the boy died a week later from a rare condition.
Williams is not the only person who is seeking a slice of Prince's estate.
A California man named Rodney Herachio Dixon has said that he should hold the rights to all of Prince's intellectual property plus $1 billion -- an amount that few believe the singer had.
Dixon said he had reached a verbal and implied agreement with Prince in 1994. In a filing unusual by legal standards, Dixon quoted an interview by Prince in which the singer said "I am music."
"If Prince is music, and the music he had left when he died is a representation of himself, and that is all that is left upon his departure, then he made his 'will' known on television," Dixon said.