In an emotional sentencing of the man who killed Morgan Freeman\u2019s granddaughter, the defendant\u2019s family screamed that it was all the famed \u201cShawshank Redemption\u201d actor\u2019s fault, alleging that he sexually abused the victim when she was younger.<\/p>\n
\u201cMorgan Freeman molested her and he caused this. He did this,\u201d Lamar Davenport\u2019s mother yelled to a reporter as she was ushered out of court for shouting to her son when Justice Ellen Biben handed down a 20-year sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s innocent! It was an accident!\u201d she insisted.<\/p>\n
The allegations of an affair between Freeman and his step-granddaughter E\u2019Dena Hines were made by the defense during Davenport\u2019s murder trial in Manhattan Supreme Court. Freeman has strongly denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
Davenport was convicted of stabbing Hines, who was his girlfriend, more than 25 times Aug. 16, 2015, on West 162nd Street.<\/p>\n
He was in the throes of a PCP-induced rage when he slaughtered Hines in full view of neighbors and pedestrians.<\/p>\n
In a partial win for the defense, Davenport was found guilty of the lesser included charge of manslaughter. He waived a jury trial, leaving his fate entirely in the hands of Biben.<\/p>\n
Hines\u2019s niece, Ayanna Freeman, and biological mother, Deena Adair, delivered heart-wrenching victim impact statements.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy soulmate was taken from me, and ever since then I continue to feel the emptiness,\u201d Ayanna Freeman choked into the microphone, often taking long pauses to compose herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shared so many of my first experiences together. There were supposed to be other firsts that she cannot and will not be a part of. This experience has forever changed me as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adair is the daughter of Freeman\u2019s first wife, Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, and another man.<\/p>\n
Hines was adopted and raised by Freeman and his second wife, Myrna Colley-Lee.<\/p>\n
Hines and her biological mother were just starting to reconnect, and the two spent time together the day she was murdered.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could I know it would be the last time I would see her or hear her voice?\u201d asked Adair, tearfully.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a void in our family. Those were our last laughs together, and I\u2019ll never be able to hold my child again. I will never see her get married or have children. There will forever be an empty seat at our family gatherings.\u201d<\/p>\n