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A nasty custody battle is on for late Kansas City Chief linebacker Jovan Belcher’s infant daughter — and whoever wins will get control of her nearly $3 million inheritance.
Four-month-old Zoey was orphaned in December, when Belcher fatally shot girlfriend Kasandra Perkins in a fit of rage, then drove to the Chiefs practice facility and killed himself in front of his coaches.
It’s not even clear that Belcher was Zoey’s father. His mother told police and NFL officials that there were questions about Zoey’s paternity, The Post reported last month.
The parentless infant is entitled to millions in annual payments, life insurance and retirement funds from the NFL — making her a gold mine to whoever gets named her conservator.
Perkins’ family was the first to file for guardian rights, in a Tarrant County, Texas, court — and also filed a restraining order against Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd.
Belcher’s family simply doesn’t deserve to raise Zoey, they argued.
“Why would you reward the murderer’s mother by giving her this baby?” Jon Michael Franks, the lawyer for Perkins’ family, told The Post.
“Their concern is for the welfare of this baby, and they’re very sincere in their concern,” Franks said.
“They are a good family, and they are all just devastated.”
That filing was made Dec. 13, 2012. The next day, Belcher’s mother shot back in Jackson County, Mo., probate court — accusing the Perkins family of kidnapping Zoey after her mother’s funeral.
After the services, “the maternal relatives . . . ceased communicating with Cheryl Shepherd and have refused to return her calls or return the child to her care,” lawyer Gretchen Gold wrote in an e-mail to probate-court officials.
Belcher’s mother was granted temporary custody of the baby after the murder-suicide.
At a hearing set for Friday in Missouri, Franks will argue that Shepherd filed her lawsuit in the wrong jurisdiction.
Shepherd lives in West Babylon, LI, where she was served her court papers, Franks said.
“Right now, the case is in jurisdictional limbo,” Franks said.
Under terms of the NFL’s collective-bargaining agreement, Zoey’s estate or guardian could get nearly $3 million — $108,000 annually over the next four years, $48,000 in the fifth year and $52,000 each year until she turns 18, or 23 if she goes to college. There is also $600,000 in life insurance, plus $200,000 for each of Belcher’s four credited seasons, a $100,000 retirement account and a trust fund set up by Kansas City Chief owners, players and employees.
With AP