The man who killed Morgan Freeman‘s granddaughter dodged a murder convicted, but was still found guilty of manslaughter.
According to TMZ, E’Dina Hines’ ex-boyfriend Lamar Davenport is now facing up to a 25-year prison sentence for stabbing Hines to death while high on PCP.
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Hines was the daughter of a woman who Freeman and his first wife, Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, adopted together.
Davenport’s lawyers argued that due to being high on the mind-altering substance, he was not guilty by reason of insanity. They claim that he was under the influence of a drug-induced psychosis when he allegedly committed the murder.
At one point during the trial, a witness claimed to see Davenport behaving aggressively toward Hines, which led to the alleged murder.
“They were arguing. She was on the floor, and he was on top of her, restraining her, stopping her from getting loose from his grip,” said Cristina Aviles, a nursing student. “He was trying to keep her down… I proceeded to call the cops.”
“He was yelling things about releasing the devil out of her. And then he pulled out a knife, and then he proceeded to stab her multiple times,” Aviles added, before going on to described how Hines attempted to flee from Davenport by flipping to her back from her stomach while she was wounded.
“There was multiple stabs. The back, and then on the front of her chest and her neck. She was on her stomach, and then she somehow flipped over, and he stabbed her on the chest,” Aviles continued. “She was trying to get away from him by pushing him and kicking him.”
Aviles said Hines continued to move, but that it appeared to be more of a “jerking” due to shock rather than voluntary movement. She added that Davenport stopped stabbing Hines once she was lying still.
During their nearly-decade-long relationship, Davenport reportedly struggled with substance abuse issues. He is also said to have fathered children with multiple other women. Following Hines’ death, he was taken to a psychiatric facility and has been in law enforcement custody ever since.
Relatedly, while the trial was underway, text messages surfaced that appeared to suggest Hines and Freeman has a romantic relationship.
The New York Daily News reported that Hines sent a message to Davenport that suggested she was having trouble with an unnamed older man.
“I don’t ask him for advice,” Hines allegedly wrote. “He was calling to ask me … I blocked him for myself not for you because men who equal grandpa feelings don’t need to be in my life at all.”
The texts were not reported to explicitly name Freeman, but during the course of a conversation about Hines’ and and Davenport’s relationship, she is alleged to have texted that “when it comes to … your grandfather, there’s a submissive love that will always be there.”
In the past, both Freeman and Hines publicly denied the allegations that they ever had a sexual relationship.
