In a shocking incident from June 2022, Jamaica resident Travis Blake was determined guilty for perpetuating a devastating act of violence resulting in multiple fatalities. After a gruelling three-and-a-half weeks of trial, the court pronounced Blake, 31, guilty of first-degree murder and other associated crimes following a rapid two-hour deliberation by the jury. Blake’s crime, involving the brutal stabbing of his partner, her son, and a cousin, has left the local community in utter disbelief. Post-trial, Blake now stares at the possibility of an impending life sentence in prison.
The spine-chilling incident unfolded within the quiet confines of a single-family residence at 116-11 155th Str, Jamaica, on the afternoon of June 24, 2022. After receiving a distress call from a resident within the house, officers from the 113th Precinct together with EMS personnel arrived at the scene. The caller, a homeowner’s son, had alarmingly discovered the decaying body of his cousin, Vashawna Malcolm, 22, upon detecting an unusual smell emanating from an upstairs bedroom.
Upon investigation, Malcolm’s body was discovered in an extraordinarily alarming state. Secured with duct tape around her wrists, ankles, and mouth, she was partially undressed from the waist down and bore multiple stab injuries. She had succumbed to three wounds on the chest and another on the neck. As local law enforcement continued their dreadful inspection of the property, they uncovered the bodies of two additional victims hidden away in the basement.
In the chilling depths of the cellar, law enforcement personnel were confronted with the gruesome sight of homeowner Karlene Barnett, 55, whose lifeless body lay amid her own blood. Barnett was found having sustained as many as ten stab wounds on her back, a separate wound to her head, and numerous skull fractures. Encounter deepened when they discovered Barnett’s son, Dervon Brightly, 36, in another room within the basement.
Brightly’s body bore harrowing signs of torture, featuring 13 puncture wounds from a screwdriver furiously jammed into his neck repeatedly. His skull and facial fractures appeared as if inflicted by a hammer, further raising the macabre nature of the crime scene. According to the trial’s documentation, Barnett and Blake were romantically involved and were sharing the house with Barnett’s son, Brightly, and Malcolm.
Malcolm, who had aspirations of pursuing a nursing course, was visiting from Jamaica for the summer. She resided in the same house along with Blake, Barnett, and Brightly. An additional occupant, another son of Barnett, also resided in the same house. The ample evidence from the trial was primarily drawn from the video surveillance set up outside the house.
The surveillance footage revealed frequent entries and exits of Blake from the residence between June 22 and June 24. Brightly’s last appearance on the video footage, innocently entering the house wearing a striped shirt around 2:55 p.m. on June 22, aligns hauntingly with his attire when his body was discovered. Blake made his escape from Queens in the aftermath of the triple homicide but was eventually detained several weeks later in Bar Harbor, Maine, and extradited back to the city.
Surprisingly, mere moments after Brightly had entered the building on the ill-fated June 22, Blake was observed leaving the premises bare-chested, his hand shrouded in bandages. Around 7:30 p.m. on the same day, Barnett, unaware of the morbid fate that was to befall her, made her way into the house donning a jacket. When her life was subsequently claimed, she remained clad in the same jacket.
In the wee hours of June 24, Blake exited the house for the last time and was seen hailing a taxi on Sutphin Boulevard. A bloodied screwdriver, presumed to have been the deadly weapon, lay discarded next to Brightly’s lifeless form, the bit was later discovered lodged in Brightly’s neck during the autopsy procedure. The crime scene was also littered with a ghastly collection of other items – a blood-stained hammer, buckets, and bottles of cleaner bearing blood residues.
Adding to the unsettling narrative, investigators also found an empty roll of duct tape and a shirt smeared with blood inside the house. After discovering the murders, police initiated an immediate manhunt to arrest the perpetrator, who had fled away from New York City. Blake managed to successfully evade authorities for some time, but was eventually apprehended in Bar Harbor, Maine after a few weeks.
Blake was taken into custody thanks to the combined efforts of the NYPD’s Regional Fugitive Task Force and local law enforcement agencies. However, Blake resisted and argued against extradition for most of that summer – but was eventually relocated back to Queens. He was checked into the 113th Precinct on Sept. 16, 2024, where he was officially linked to the grizzly crime scene through the recovery of DNA evidence.
On closer investigation, his blood-stained shirt and bloody footprints trailing through the house’s basement next to Barnett’s lifeless body were key in connecting him with the crime scene. Additionally, forensic experts discovered Blake’s fingerprint on a blood-stained mop located on the stairs leading to the crime-ridden cellar. This damning collection of evidence proved crucial during the trial proceedings.
The trial, which cast bright light on the chilling details, commenced on March 12, and closing statements were heard on March 31. The jury pronounced Blake guilty of first-degree murder and three counts of secondary-degree murder. Blake was also charged with two counts of criminal weapon possession. Upon sentencing on May 1, Blake faces a life-imprisonment sentence without the opportunity for parole.
Despite his initial attempts to evade the law, Blake was eventually returned to the state he fled from in a quest for justice. In an ultimate decision borne from the cumulative weight of the evidence against him, the jury convicted Blake of first-degree murder. An era of terror thus concluded, offering a small glimmer of closure for the victims’ families and the greater community.