ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 24, 1996 TAG: 9605240066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
Vanessa Knowles said she put her finger in the barrel of her father's shotgun and begged him to spare her mother's life.
But her father pulled the trigger, blowing off her fingertip and fatally wounding her mother, the 18-year-old testified Thursday. The March 20 shooting left Angie Knowles' four children without their mother, and her estranged husband, Michael Knowles, in jail on eight charges, including murder.
"I tried to grab the gun and I couldn't move it at all," Vanessa Knowles testified in Montgomery County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. "I stuck my finger in the barrel and he pulled the trigger. She just fell."
Judge J. Patrick Graybeal certified six charges against Michael Knowles: murder, malicious wounding, breaking and entering with intent to commit murder, attempted malicious wounding and two firearm charges.
Two more firearms charges will be sought via direct indictments from the July 9 grand jury, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith.
Keith asked that an additional charge of attempted malicious wounding be dropped. He said there was no evidence that Michael Knowles fired at Officer Mike Epperly as was originally thought. He is still charged with firing at a deputy.
Keith estimated a six-month wait after the grand jury before the case would come to trial.
During Thursday's preliminary hearing, Vanessa Knowles wore a white dress with a purple ribbon, used to signify the victims of domestic violence, pinned near her left shoulder. Her father sat erect in a chair behind his attorneys and barely blinked as his daughter testified. After the shooting, Michael Knowles refused to leave the house and became angry, Vanessa Knowles said.
She choked on tears and her father barely blinked as she testified how her father leaned over her wounded mother and swore.
"I begged my dad to leave and not to shoot me or my brothers," Vanessa Knowles testified. "He said, `Why? Do you think you can save your mom?'''
Vanessa Knowles testified that she then lifted her mother's shirt and her father laughed as he referred to the wound: "See? Right in the heart. She's dead."
Michael Knowles raked his shotgun across the mantelpiece and all the family photos crashed to the floor, Vanessa Knowles said.
"He was angry because we didn't have any photos of him," Vanessa Knowles testified. "I just kept begging him to leave."
Michael Knowles left the house two times by the back door, one time allegedly stopping to shoot at a sheriff's deputy. The third time he left the house carrying a gallon jug of wine and without the shotgun.
While her father was outside talking to police, Vanessa Knowles picked up the weapon and ran through the house to the front door, where she tossed the gun onto the lawn. Meanwhile, officers surrounded her father and arrested him.
Under cross-examination by her father's attorney, Max Jenkins, Vanessa Knowles testified that her father was angry the day of the shooting and blamed her mother for his emotions.
"He said my mother took everything away from him," Vanessa Knowles testified.
Jenkins asked several questions about Michael Knowles' mental state. Vanessa Knowles testified she never heard her father say he heard voices, but did remember him mentioning getting treatment for mental problems many years ago.
Jenkins also asked if his client ever mentioned a computer the day of the shooting. Vanessa testified that he did not.
Jenkins didn't elaborate on the computer and couldn't be reached for comment later, but two search warrants filed by police after the slaying indicate that data on the computer could indicate a possible motive: anger over an alleged affair.
According to two search warrants filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court, Christiansburg police seized a computer and related equipment belonging to Michael Knowles on March 26. Some equipment was seized from 7 Pepper St., which is Knowles' house, and the computer was picked up at the Tech Bookstore in Blacksburg, where Knowles had taken it for repairs.
According to a search warrant, Michael Knowles told police "he recently discovered on computer that [his wife] was having an affair with someone." The warrant further stated Knowles made a statement that he killed his wife because of what he found on the computer.
Vanessa Knowles testified that her father came to their Evans Street house and took her mother's computer about a week before the shooting.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. During Thursday's preliminary hearing,by CNBWilliam Knowles, seated behind his attorneys Max (left) and Robbie
Jenkins, listens to his daughter Vanessa testify against him.
color.