Morgan Freeman's granddaughter pleaded, 'why are you doing this?' as her boyfriend stabbed her to death in the street in 2015, witnesses at his trial have claimed.

E'Dena Hines, 33, was stabbed 25 times in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan on August 16, 2015, at 2.50am.

Her boyfriend, rapper Lamar Davenport, 30, is accused of her murder and is currently standing trial for it.

On Tuesday, a witness told how she saw him straddling Hines on the street and stopped her from getting to her feet.

'They were arguing. She was on the floor, and he was on top of her, restraining her, stopping her from getting loose from his grip.

E'Dena Hines, the granddaughter of actor Morgan Freeman, was stabbed to death in August 2015. On Tuesday, her boyfriend, who is her accused killer, appeared in court in Manhattan to face trial for her murder. She is pictured with her grandfather at the 2005 Golden Globes

'He was trying to keep her down. … I proceeded to call the cops,' nursing student Cristina Aviles said, according to The New York Post which attended Tuesday's hearing.

'He was yelling things about releasing the devil out of her. And then he pulled out a knife, and then he proceeded to stab her multiple times,' she added.

Aviles said she watched 'in shock' as Davenport pulled out a knife.

'I don’t know where it came from,' she said.

She described in harrowing detail how Hines tried to escape and 'flipped' from her back to her stomach as she was repeatedly wounded.

'There was multiple stabs. The back, and then on the front of her chest and her neck.

'She was on her stomach, and then she somehow flipped over, and he stabbed her on the chest.

'She was trying to get away from him by pushing him and kicking him,' she said.

She said Hines continued to move but not intentionally and that it looked like her body was 'jerking' in shock.

Lamar Davenport, Hines' rapper boyfriend, is alleged to have killed her. He is shown above in court on Tuesday. Davenport denies the killing

Crime scene Detective Philip Matthew was another witness. He is pictured leaving the court on Tuesday

When Hines died, Freeman released an emotional statement saying the world would 'never know her talent'

Davenport stopped plunging the knife into her, she said, once Hines was lying still.

The witness was the person who called 911. During that call, which was played by prosecutors, she screamed: 'Oh my God! Oh no! She’s on the floor!

'I can’t believe I’m watching this! This f–king guy is stabbing her. This guy is crazy!'

Hines was the daughter of Freeman's first wife, Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, and was not related to the actor by blood.

He adopted her mother when he married Jeanette, however, and considered himself her father.

Davenport was a drug-addicted rapper at the time who had been unfaithful to her throughout their nine-year relationship

They had a close relationship and Hines went with him and her grandmother to several high profile film awards ceremonies.

She and Davenport had been living together in a $780,000 apartment that Freeman had bought for Hines.

During their nine-year relationship, he fathered children with other women and abused drugs.

At the time of E'Dena's death, it was claimed that he was high on cocaine on the night he stabbed her.

Davenport denies the killing. He was taken to a psychiatric facility immediately after her death but has been in custody ever since.