This undated booking photo released by Missouri Department of Corrections shows Carlin Q Williams

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 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.

Doctor prescribed Prince medication before death

Investigators in Minnesota have questioned a doctor who prescribed medication for Prince during the weeks before he died, a police search warrant shows. Michael Schulenberg, a local family practice doctor, had treated the musician twice, including the day before he died, and showed up at his Paisley Park estate the morning of his death on April 21 with test results, the document obtained by the Los Angeles Times showed Tuesday.

Prince, 57, had already been pronounced dead by the time the physician arrived after the musician was found collapsed in an elevator. The warrant does not say what Schulenberg prescribed, for what ailment or whether Prince took the drugs, from a prescription to be filled at a Walgreens pharmacy.

The police also conducted another search of the pop star's Minneapolis home and seized medical records from the hospital where Schulenberg worked, it shows. The cause of death is still unknown, and investigators are examining whether he died of an opioid overdose. Authorities found prescription painkillers in Prince's possession after his death, officials said. A medical examiner has said full results of a post-mortem examination could take several weeks to obtain, although the Carver County Sheriff's office said there was no sign of trauma or evidence of suicide. Police were investigating the scene of Prince's death again early Wednesday morning. "Detectives are revisiting the scene at Paisley Park as a component of a complete investigation," the Carver County Sheriff's office tweeted, adding that no other information was available. -AFP