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SOUTH JAMAICA, Queens (PIX11) --- A man convicted of killing his girlfriend, her son and cousin in a grisly stabbing spree in a Queens home three years ago will be spending the rest of his life behind bars, authorities said Friday.
Travis Blake, 31, was sentenced to life in prison after he was found guilty on three counts of murder during a jury trial last month, prosecutors said.
Blake stabbed his girlfriend, Karlene Barnett, 55, her son, Dervon Brightly, 36, and cousin, Vashawna Malcolm, 22, to death in the Jamaica home he shared with Barnett in June 2022.
Barnett was found dead in a puddle of her own blood with 10 stab wounds to her back and head and multiple skull fractures in the basement. Brightly was repeatedly stabbed with a screwdriver and beat in the head with a hammer, according to court records.
Malcolm's body was already decomposing when she was found half naked with stab wounds to the neck and chest in an upstairs bedroom, prosecutors said.
Blake and Barnett met at work and were dating. The defendant then moved into Barnett's home she shared with her son on 115th Street. Malcom was visiting for the summer from Jamaica.
Blake was arrested in Maine several weeks after the gruesome killings and extradited to Queens, prosecutors said.
The defendant was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"This defendant deserves every day of his sentence, and we stand with the victims’ family as they continue to mourn this overwhelming loss," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
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