Body-burn suspect is charged with murder

A building super accused of burning a man’s corpse in a barrel in Brooklyn — a day after hugging the victim’s brother in a bizarre encounter in church — has now been charged with murder, authorities said Monday.

Ex-con Derek Whitaker, 53, was initially charged with arson, concealing a corpse, hindering prosecution and witness tampering.

He is accused of burning the corpse of 55-yearold Jonathan Blake in a barrel in the basement of an apartment building on Jefferson Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant where Whitaker works as a super and where his mother lives on March 16.

Now the city medical examiner has determined Blake was the victim of a homicide, leading the way to murder charges for Whitaker. Police suspect he was shot in the head at a different location.

Police believe the two men were romantic rivals over a woman, sources said.

A day before Blake’s body was discovered and Whitaker was arrested nearby, Whitaker sat in Blake’s regular seat at the White Plains Deliverance Evangelical Center, in Mount Vernon, Westchester County, where the victim lived.

Blake’s family and friends said Whitaker made a show of himself during the church service, banging on the floors and hollering he was a “changed man.”

Concerned they hadn’t seen or heard from Blake for a couple days and that he had failed to show up for church, his family reported him missing to police.

Whitaker is being held on Rikers Island without bail in the case. His rap sheet includes 19 prior arrests, including a robbery charge.