NEIGHBOR HELD IN SLAYING OF 3-YEAR-OLD BOY
Tot had been beaten, drowned in B’klyn bldg.
Police have arrested the suspect in the brutal beating and drowning death of a 3-year-old — the stepson of a next-door neighbor who regularly babysat the tot — authorities say.
Kevin James, 29, is facing charges of murder, assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child.
He allegedly killed little Denim Brown with a blow to the head followed by drowning inside a vacant apartment down the hall from the victim’s home in the Flatbush area on Sunday night.
James, who lives with his family in the apartment next door to Denim’s family on New York Ave. near Clarkson Ave., was arrested Monday after he was questioned by police, cops said.
The child was rushed to Kings County Hospital after he was found unconscious in a bathtub.
A neighbor heard screaming Sunday night.
“It’s so sad,” the resident, who did not want to be named, told the Daily News on Monday. “I don’t know if it was arguing or crying.”
James’ stepfather was babysitting Denim in James’ family’s apartment when the stepson left with the toddler, taking him to the vacant apartment across the hall — where he beat and drowned the boy — according to cops and prosecutors.
Wearing a stony expression, James was held without bail following his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, where Judge Paul McDonald noted “the nature of the offense and given what I think is a strong case, although circumstantial.”
The vacant apartment was the scene of an investigation Tuesday. Investigators found property belonging to James there, according to prosecutors.
Doctors at the hospital found trauma to the child’s head and neck. The city Medical Examiner’s office determine the cause of death to be “drowning with a contributing factor of blunt force trauma,” prosecutors said.
The boy’s mother was not home at the time, having asked James’ stepfather to take care of the child, according to authorities.
Police said they first took James into custody on an unrelated outstanding warrant. When cops questioned him about what happened to Denim, he began acting suspicious and claimed he was in Times Square when the child died, even though his own family said he was in the building, according to authorities.
In a bizarre turn, James then claimed he didn’t know the woman — Denim’s mother
— who told cops he was at the scene of the crime, a law enforcement source said.
“She hates me now. After I’ve been very good to her,” James’ mother tersely told The News after her son’s arraignment.
“I fell down in the street over there. I’m hurting over my whole body,” she added.
A woman who identified herself as Denim’s aunt posted several photos of the boy to Facebook, as well as some words of remembrance.
“I never thought I would be writing this post. Rest in peace to my handsome, intelligent, sweet, playful, happy, stubborn nephew,” she wrote. “I love you so much, Denim, and I will never ever forget you. You don’t know how much you meant to us and you will be missed.”
Neighbors created a small memorial with some of Denim’s favorite toys in the child’s honor.
A building resident, who would only identify herself as San, walked past the vigil with her 3-year-old son Tuesday morning.
“This morning he asked me … why are all those toys there? Does somebody not want his toys?” San said, recalling how helpless she felt in trying to explain the memorial to her child.
“I wasn’t ready to give him this info at this point,” she told The News. “I don’t want him to understand death at such a young age. I was trying to hustle him out the door. Even though this is not my child, it could have been my child.”
San was with her child in nearby Ralph Henry Park when she saw Denim and a man in his 60s who was apparently looking after the tot.
“I saw him alive at the park a couple of hours before. He was playing on the slide,” she recalled. “He played with my son a couple of hours before they killed him.”
San didn’t know the older man looking after Denim but the caregiver just sat on the bench paying very little attention.
“I tied the child’s laces,” San said. “You’re looking after him but I had to tie the child’s laces?”
A few hours later, she heard James had allegedly killed Denim.
“The fact that he took the child into another apartment,” Sam said. “I’m just wondering why did he did it.”
Other neighbors were asking the same question.
“I’m shocked. I’m in disbelief,” downstairs neighbor Carmen Deloach said of James’ arrest. She described his’ family as a loud bunch but added that Kevin always seemed to be the calm one.
“They’re just banging on their floor. Sometimes I hear arguing up there back and forth,” said Deloach, 62. “The other brother was boisterous and argumentative. I’ve had problems with them but I never thought (Kevin) would do something like that.”
Kevin James was always apologizing if his family was too loud, Deloach recalled, saying: “When I was having issues with them he gave me his number and told me to call him.”
Neighbor Sam Phillipe, 16, used to babysit Denim when he was about 2.
“We couldn’t do it anymore and [Denim’s mother] started looking around for someone else and then this happened,” he said.
“It’s like losing two family members, because I knew Kevin personally. I’ve known him for a long time. Since I was a baby,” added Phillipe. “I looked up to him.”
The teen said the whole building was in shock and he never thought James would be capable of such violence.
“Kevin was a very respectful young man. He had a lot going for him. He was making music. He started his own YouTube channel.”
Phillipe contributed a soccer ball to the memorial for Denim.
“We would play soccer and every time he saw us, he would run and try to play soccer with us. That’s why I put the soccer ball there.”
The toddler’s grieving family declined to speak to a reporter.
“We are not making any statements at this time. Sorry,” said a man who answered the door.
James — who was busted for petty larceny and possessing a knife over 4 inches in 2010, according to prosecutors — is due back in court on Friday.