Morgan Freeman smiles and denies knowledge of E'Dena Hines' texts
Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman appeared unfazed and professed total ignorance of allegations that he and his slain step-granddaughter had been in a sexual relationship before her violent death.
Dailymail.com has obtained exclusive video showing a photographer confronting The Shawshank Redemption star in Los Angeles on Monday and asking him about the scandalous revelations that emerged last week in Manhattan Criminal Court during the murder trial of Lamar Davenport, 30, who is accused of fatally stabbing E'Dena Hines 25 times in August 2015.
Davenport's defense attorneys on Friday introduced into evidence text message exchanges in which Hines and her boyfriend discussed her 'grandpa feelings' and 'submissive love.'
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Buttonholed: Morgan Freeman is pictured walking to his car in Los Angeles this week and being asked about his relationship with his late step-granddaughter
A photographer drew Freeman's attention before he got into his car and asked about text messages exchanges in which E'Dena Hines talked about her 'grandpa feelings'
The 32-second clip shows the 80-year-old screen star making his way towards his parked car, casually dressed in a button-down denim shirt, a pair of grey jeans and a baseball cap.
As he is about to open the driver's side door, the photographer draws his attention and asks for his reaction to the text messages ‘corroborating a relationship’ between him and his late step-granddaughter.
Freeman shakes his head in denial, breaks into a smile and replies: 'I don't even know what you’re talking about.'
He then calmly gets into his red sedan and shuts the door.
All smiles: The 80-year-old Oscar winner shook his head, broke into a smile and replied, 'I don't even know what you're talking about'
After professing his ignorance, Freeman got into his sedan and closed the door
Earlier, it was revealed that Davenport's lawyer Annie Costanzo stated in court on Friday that not long before her death in August 2015, E'Dena Hines, 33, told her boyfriend and others that ‘her grandfather engaged in a sexually inappropriate relationship with her.’
On July 3, 2015, about six weeks before she was slaughtered outside her apartment building in Washington Heights, Hines texted Davenport to tell him that she was having issues with an older man.
Bombshell: Text message exchanges between Lamar Davenport (pictured in court earlier this month, left) and E'dena Hines talked about her 'grandpa feelings' and 'submissive love' for her grandfather, Morgan Freeman (pictured together in 2005, right)
Morgan Freeman's family are pictured leaving Manhattan Supreme Court in the Lamar Davenport murder trial on Friday
‘I don’t ask him for advice,’ Hines 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,' reported New York Daily News.
The message was sent in the context of a broader conversation about Davenport and Hines' troubled relationship.
During the exchange, the pair talked about Hines’ 'grandpa,' with Davenport writing to his girlfriend that 'when it comes to... your grandfather, there's a submissive love that will always be there.'
It is not clear at this point why the defense chose to disclose this information in open court, or how it might be relevant to the murder case.
But a therapist testified that Davenport admitted to frequent arguments with Hines about infidelity during which each accused the other of being unfaithful.
E'Dena Hines was the biological daughter of Deena Adair, whom Freeman adopted with his first wife. They were not related by blood.
Freeman and his second wife, Myrna, later raised E'Dena as their own.
Rumors about Freeman and Hines have been swirling for nearly a decade, beginning in 2009 when The National Enquirer published a story alleging that the Hollywood A-lister was involved in a years-long affair with his step-granddaughter.
The magazine also quote a friend of hers saying she wanted to marry the actor.
Three years before Hines' violent death, it was reported that Freeman was planning to marry her, but they both vehemently denied being romantically involved.
Freeman, 80, was last sighted appearing at the WE Day California at The Forum, in Inglewood, California, on Thursday (left and right)
'The recent reports of any pending marriage or romantic relationship of me to anyone are defamatory fabrications from the tabloid media designed to sell papers,' Freeman said in a statement in 2012. 'What is even more alarming is that these fabrications are now being picked up by the legitimate press as well.'
Hines, then aged 27, said: 'These stories about me and my grandfather are not only untrue, they are also hurtful to me and my family.'
Morgan was married to Hines' grandmother, Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, from 1967 until 1979.
He then married costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee on June 16, 1984, and the two later adopted his step-granddaughter E'dena and raised her together.
The couple finally divorced in 2010 after a messy break up.
Hines was stabbed 25 times in the street in Washington Heights, New York, on August 16, 2015, at 2.50am.
Davenport's attorneys argue he is not guilty of the violent crime by reason of insanity because he was in the throes of a PCP-induced psychosis at the time of the attack.
Hines and Davenport, a rapper, had been living together in a $780,000 apartment that Freeman had bought for Hines.
In this video shown in court last week, an intoxicated Lamar Davenport (pictured) becomes angry at E'Dena Hines, who appears to be filming her final hours
During their nine-year relationship, Davenport fathered children with other women and abused drugs.
Davenport denies the killing. He was taken to a psychiatric facility immediately after her death but has been in custody ever since.
Last week, the court heard testimony from a witness who described how Hines was repeatedly stabbed in the back, neck and chest by Davenport, who was heard yelling about releasing the devil from her.
The jury was also shown footage recorded by Hines just hours before her killing, which showed her intoxicated boyfriend sitting at a table with friends and angrily yelling at her to stop filming.