A Jamaica man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Queens Supreme Court on Friday for the 2022 murders of his girlfriend, her son, and her cousin.
Travis Blake, 31, of 155th Street, was convicted by a jury last month of first-degree murder and other counts for the triple slaying in June 2022. The bodies of his victims were discovered with an array of puncture and blunt force wounds in a state of decomposition in their shared Jamaica home.
“Travis Blake viciously murdered his girlfriend, her son, and a visiting cousin with knives, hammers, and a screwdriver, and then fled New York to avoid capture,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
According to the indictment and trial testimony, on June 24, 2022, at around 2:15 p.m., police from the 113th Precinct in Jamaica and EMS responded to a 911 call from a resident inside a single-family home at 116-11 155th St.
The caller, a son of the homeowner, was inside the residence when he smelled a foul odor and discovered the body of his cousin, Vashawna Malcolm, 22, who was on a bed in an upstairs bedroom in an advanced state of decomposition. Her wrists, ankles, and mouth were wrapped with duct tape. She was partially nude from the waist down, and she had three stab wounds to the chest and one to her neck. Officers then discovered two more bodies behind a locked door in the cellar. Homeowner Karlene Barnett, 55, was found dead in a puddle of her own blood with 10 stab wounds to her back, a stab wound to her head, and multiple skull fractures. Barnett’s son, Dervon Brightly, 36, was discovered in another basement room with 13 puncture wounds from a screwdriver driven repeatedly into his neck and multiple skull and facial fractures consistent with having been inflicted by a hammer.
According to trial records, Barnett met Blake at work, and the two were dating. They lived at the home with Barnett’s son, Brightly, and Malcolm, a nursing student and Barnett’s niece who was visiting from the island nation of Jamaica for the summer. A fifth person, Barnett’s other son, also lived at the home.
Video surveillance of the exterior of the house, detailed in trial records, showed Blake entering and exiting the house several times between June 22 and June 24. The video recording also showed Brightly entering at approximately 2:55 p.m. on June 22 wearing a striped shirt. When the 36-year-old’s bloodied body was discovered in the basement, he was found wearing the same striped shirt.
The surveillance camera also showed Blake outside the residence in a green shirt before Brightly came home on June 22. A short time after Brightly entered the home, Blake exited the building wearing no shirt and with a bandage wrapped around one of his hands.
Barnett was also seen on video coming home on June 22 at around 7:30 p.m., the last time she was seen alive. When she was murdered, Barnett was still wearing a jacket that she had worn when she arrived home. Blake is last seen on video at approximately 1 a.m. on June 24, walking toward Sutphin Boulevard and getting into a taxi.
Police found a bloody screwdriver beside Brightly’s body, missing the bit. The bit was recovered from inside Brightly’s neck during his autopsy. There was also a bloody hammer and bucket inside the residence, along with bottles of household cleaner with blood stains on them.
Crime scene investigators retrieved an empty roll of duct tape and a green, blood-stained shirt from inside the home.
Blake fled New York City immediately after the triple murder. The brief manhunt for Blake ended with his arrest in Bar Harbor, Maine, a few weeks later, when members of the NYPD’s Regional Fugitive Task Force took him into custody in coordination with local law enforcement agencies. Blake fought his extradition for much of that summer but was ultimately sent back to Queens where he was booked at the 113th Precinct on Sept. 16, 2024.
During the three-and-a-half-week-long trial, DNA evidence from the crime scene was presented linking Blake to a blood-stained shirt and to bloody footprints found on the cellar floor next to Barnett’s body. A fingerprint matching Blake was also discovered on a blood-stained mop on the stairs leading down into the basement. Internet activity from a phone used by Blake reflected that he was researching which states had the death penalty in 2022.
“There are no words to describe the trauma and lifelong sorrow this defendant caused for the family of Karlene Barnett, Dervon Brightly and Vashawna Malcolm,” Katz said. “This defendant deserves every day of his sentence, and we stand with the victims’ family as they continue to mourn this overwhelming loss.”
Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant, who presided at trial, sentenced Blake to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the first-degree murder charge, 25 years to life in prison on each charge of murder in the second degree, and 364 days in jail on each weapon charge. The sentences on the second-degree murder charges are to be served consecutively to one another for a minimum sentence of 75 years, and concurrently to the sentence imposed for the first-degree murder charge.
