Killer of Knight heir guilty in first degree

PHILADELPHIA (P) A jury last night convicted Salvator Soli of first-degree murder in the stabbing of newspaper heir John S. Knight III.

The seven-man, five-woman panel deliberated just over eight hours before returning the verdict against Soli, who was also convicted of burglary, robbery and criminal conspiracy.

Soli, 37, was charged with killing Knight, heir to the Knight publishing interests, in his fashionable Philadelphia apartment Dec. 7. A second defendant, Steven Maleno, will be tried later.

A third man sought in the slaying, Felix Melendez, was found slain shortly after Knight was killed.

The possible sentences for firstdegree murder conviction under Pennsylvania law are death or life.

in prison. The sentence is determined by a judge and no date was set for sentencing.

Knight was an editor in charge of special projects at the Philadelphia Daily News at the time of his death. The paper is one of several controlled by the Knight family.

Soli and Maleno, 25, also are charged in the death of Melendez, whose body was found in New Jersey five days after Knight was killed.

The prosecutor, Dist. Atty. Emmett Fitzpatrick, told the jury Melendez had no reason to kill Knight even though he "may have had a homosexual relationship with John Knight." He discounted theories that Knight was killed in a "lover's quarrel."

Fitzpatrick said the entire incident, as orchestrated by Soli, was "a scheme to rip off John Knight."