NORFOLK, Va. — A Norfolk man was sentenced to 50 years in prison for killing his girlfriend and their two infant children.
27-year-old Duwayne Warren was arrested and charged following a stabbing incident that happened on December 29, 2020.
The Norfolk Police Department said officers responded to an apartment complex on 6th Bay Street for a reported stabbing. Officers found Epifani D. Andrews, 22, and her 3-month-old son suffering from extensive injuries. The two were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to a court document obtained by 13News Now, Warren was watching his and Andrews' infant son for Christmas when she came to pick him up at his residence.
Inside the apartment, Warren proceeded to stab Andrews numerous times and chase her. Investigators believe that the baby boy was unresponsive and not breathing as the altercation began.
An autopsy found that Andrews died from multiple sharp and blunt force injuries, while the child was found to have multiple blunt force injuries.
This incident happened a year after Warren and Andrews' 12-week-old daughter died.
On Dec. 19, 2019, Norfolk emergency personnel responded to 320 Hicks Avenue for a cardiac arrest, where medics pronounced the baby girl dead. Warren told detectives that he had co-slept with his daughter and then upon waking, he noticed she was cold to the touch and unresponsive.
Her body was taken to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters for a Child Abuse Program (CAP) consultation report, anthropological examination, and autopsy. The CAP report concluded that the girl died with multiple injuries indicative of abusive head trauma, abdominal trauma, and physical abuse.
The anthropological examination found that the girl had traumatic injuries consistent with abuse rather than an accidental cause.
The autopsy found injuries suspicious for smothering, but her cause of death was undetermined because the doctor performing it couldn't rule out injuries from overlying associated with co-sleeping adults.
Following Warren's arrest in December 2020, he waived his Miranda rights and admitted to hurting Andrews and his son, as well as his daughter in the 2019 incident.
He pleaded guilty in Norfolk Circuit Court to three second-degree murder charges in November of 2021.
If you have or someone you love has fallen victim to crime, including but not limited to domestic violence, resources are available at the Norfolk Family Justice Center. For more information, please visit norfolkfjc.org, call 757-330-0376 or stop by the NFJC on the sixth floor at 500 E. Plume St., between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. If you are in crisis, call the 24/7 hotline by dialing 757-251-0144. In an emergency, please call 911.
