The 29-year-old fugitive nabbed in Maine in connection with the triple homicide of three family members in Queens over the summer -- a brutal case that involved bound hands, bloody tools and puncture wounds -- has been indicted on first-degree murder charges in the case, the district attorney's office announced Tuesday.
Travis Blake, of Queens, was on the run for a week after allegedly stabbing his girlfriend, her adult son and niece inside the girlfriend's Jamaica home in late June. He was extradited to New York City on Friday and arraigned in Queens Supreme Court a day ago on a six-count grand jury indictment charging him with first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder and two counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, cops responding to a 911 call at the 155th Street home on Karlene Barnett found the 55-year-old woman dead, along with her 36-year-old son Dervon Brightly and 22-year-old niece Vashawnna Malcolm. They had been dead for about two days by the time they were found, court documents say.
Surveillance cameras covering the entry points of Barnett's home allegedly showed Blake in the backyard around 2:50 p.m. on June 22. apparently bleeding from a hand injury and using a hammer to drive a nail into a beam of wood, according to prosecutors. He is seen going into the house, which Brightly was seen walking into about a half hour earlier. Hours later, around 7:30 p.m., Barnett walked into her home. She never came out alive.
It wasn't for two more days, on June 24, that prosecutors say another person who lives at the home noticed a bed smell coming from the niece's bedroom. That person opened her door and found her body. The person called 911 and cops responded. They walked into a total horror scene.
The niece was dead in her bedroom, undressed from the waist down. She was bound with duct tape and had several apparent puncture wounds to her chest. Behind a locked basement door, cops followed a trail of blood to another bedroom, where they found Barnett with apparent traumatic head injuries and several puncture wounds as well.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Brightly was also found dead in the basement with injuries similar to those endured by Barnett.
News
Prosecutors say cops recovered a bloody hammer, screwdriver and wood beam with an embedded nail in it at the scene. They also found blood-stained bottles of household cleaner, a bloody bucket and a mop, court papers say, as well as Blake's cellphone, passport and valuables.
"As alleged, this defendant carried out a horrific triple murder and then fled the state, leaving a devastated family and a mourning community in his wake," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement announcing the indictment Tuesday. "Such brutal disregard for human life will not go unanswered. Despite being on the run immediately following the murder, the defendant is now in custody and faces justice in our courts."
Authorities have not speculated on a possible motive for the killings. Blake, who was captured in Bar Harbor, Maine, on June 30, is due back in court next month. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the charges.
A message seeking comment was left with his attorney.
