Morgan Freeman made his first public appearance since the trial of his granddaughter's killer, as he attended an event in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The 81-year-old actor hadn't been seen in months before the event, which was held to promote National Geographic's The Story of God With Morgan Freeman at the The Langham Huntington in Pasadena, California.

The Shawshank Redemption star's appearance came less than a month after his step-granddaughter E'Dena Hines' killer Lamar Davenport received a 20-year sentence in his first-degree manslaughter conviction after fatally stabbing her in August 2015 in New York City.

At the sentencing Davenport's mother yelled 'Morgan Freeman molested her and he caused this' in reference to past accusations Freeman had denied.

During the trial, Davenport's attorney Beth Unger said that Hines, an actress who had appeared in Freeman's 2014 film 5 Flights Up, 'disclosed to Lamar Davenport and others that [Freeman] engaged in a sexually-inappropriate relationship with her.'

In the January hearing, Davenport, 33, said he was sorry for the incident and didn't 'remember what happened' in the killing of Hines, who he had dated.

Freeman was first linked to Hines in a 2009 National Enquirer report; he issued a statement in 2012 calling the allegations 'defamatory fabrications from the tabloid media designed to sell papers,' while Hines called them 'untrue' and 'hurtful' in a statement.'