{"id":22083,"date":"2013-06-24T16:30:18","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T20:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=22083"},"modified":"2013-06-24T16:30:18","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T20:30:18","slug":"judge-gives-cousin-custody-of-belchers-baby-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=22083","title":{"rendered":"Judge Gives Cousin Custody Of Belcher\u2019s Baby Daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 A Texas woman was awarded custody Thursday of her 9-month-old orphaned cousin whose mother was killed by former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker <strong>Jovan Belcher<\/strong> late last year before he turned the gun on himself.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson County Probate Commissioner <strong>Daniel Wheeler<\/strong> issued an order Thursday granting custody of <strong>Zoey Perkins<\/strong> to <strong>Sophie Perkins<\/strong> of Pflugerville, Texas, saying she was more suited than <strong>Belcher\u2019s<\/strong> mother to be the baby\u2019s guardian. During a three-day hearing last week, <strong>Sophie Perkins <\/strong>and <strong>Belcher\u2019s<\/strong> mother, <strong>Cheryl Shepherd <\/strong>of West Babylon, N.Y., each argued that she would be the best guardian for the girl.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Perkins<\/strong>, who was<strong> Kasandra Perkins\u2019<\/strong> first cousin, is the sister of <strong>Whitney Golden Charles<\/strong>, whose husband is Chiefs All-Pro running back <strong>Jamaal Charles<\/strong>. Other than some trips to New York to spend time with <strong>Shepherd<\/strong>, <strong>Zoey <\/strong>has mostly stayed with <strong>Perkins<\/strong> in Texas since the shooting.<\/p>\n<p>The time the girl spent bonding with <strong>Perkins<\/strong> played a role in <strong>Wheeler\u2019s <\/strong>decision, he wrote, as did the police calls to <strong>Shepherd\u2019s<\/strong> home. <strong>Zoey <\/strong>is set to receive more than $1 million under the NFL\u2019s collective bargaining agreement, including $108,000 annually over the next four years, $48,000 in the fifth year and $52,000 each year until she turns 18. She will continue to receive that amount until she is 23 if she attends college.<\/p>\n<p>A trust funded with money from the Chiefs owners, coaches, players, employees and the public will also help care for the child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 A Texas woman was awarded custody Thursday of her 9-month-old orphaned cousin whose mother was killed by former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher late last year before he turned the gun on himself. Jackson County Probate Commissioner Daniel Wheeler issued an order Thursday granting custody of Zoey Perkins to Sophie [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}