A New York City man found guilty of stabbing the life out of Morgan Freeman’s granddaughter in 2015 was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday.
WNBC reported that Lamar Davenport, 33, was acquitted of second-degree murder but convicted of first-degree manslaughter for killing his girlfriend, E’Dena Hines, 33, near their shared Manhattan apartment. Prosecutors claimed Davenport was under the influence of alcohol and drugs; on the day of the slaying, Hines recorded Davenport incoherently yelling at her while apparently high on PCP.
The sentencing judge said Davenport stabbed Hines 25 times in the view of witnesses, calling the deadly attack “violent, brutal,” and “Shakespearean in its layers of tragedy.”
“He only stopped with the final plunge in the heart, which is where he left the knife. When the police arrived he was still on top of her,” Justice Ellen Biben said, according to the New York Daily News. “He did so fueled by God and demonic delusions of a PCP-fueled psychosis.”
Davenport’s mother reportedly professed her son’s innocence as the judge handed down the decades-long prison sentence.
“Morgan Freeman molested her and he caused this. He did this,” she screamed as she was hauled out of the courtroom, according to the New York Post. “He’s innocent! It was an accident!”
Hines’ mother, Deena Adair, is the daughter of Freeman’s first wife Jeanette Adair Bradshaw from a previous relationship. The actor adopted Adair when he and Bradshaw wed.
During the trial, texts surfaced from Hines suggesting she had a romantic relationship with Freeman, now 80. According to the Daily Mail, Hines had messaged Davenport to admit she had “grandpa feelings.” Freeman denied those claims to The Sun in April.
Despite the mother’s outburst, Davenport apologized for his actions and a told tale of a relationship filled with turmoil and drugs.
“I don’t remember what happened. Everything reminds me of her,” he said, according to the Daily News.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen. I couldn’t possibly want this to happen. I’m so sorry.”
[Featured image: E’Dena Hines, Morgan Freeman/Galaxy/STAR MAX/IPx via AP]
