The mother of a Brooklyn man accused of beating and drowning a 3-year-old neighbor boy he was babysitting has said she feels “ashamed” for her son, adding, “My whole family is saddened.” I am,” he added.
Kevin James, 29, was charged with murder and assault in the death of Denim Brown inside his East Flatbush apartment, and the city medical examiner ruled the death a homicide Wednesday. . And the suspected murderer’s own relatives were shattered by this senseless crime.
“The devil came inside him and did this,” James’ mother told the newspaper on condition of anonymity. “That’s not him. I feel terrible.
“The whole family is working hard,” she added. “We haven’t eaten at all.”
James was arraigned Tuesday in Brooklyn Criminal Court on charges of second-degree murder, second-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child and ordered held without bail.
Denim died from “multiple blunt force trauma to the face and body,” pulmonary edema, and drowning, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Brooklyn Police Department.
“I’m trying to get through this,” the murdered toddler’s mother told the Post. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
Meanwhile, according to James’s mother (58), her partner Michael was assigned to babysit Denim, but when her son-in-law started playing with the toddler, he entered the bedroom and left the young victim next door alone. He said he didn’t realize he had taken him to his apartment.
The mother said Michael heard “voices” and thought her son-in-law and the child were playing in the living room.
“The apartment across the street is vacant. No one lives there,” she said. “The door was pulled up and not locked. Kevin took Denim there. No one knew. The whole time Michael thought they were in the living room. . He didn’t realize there was silence. Kevin took Denim to an empty apartment.”
When Michael realized Denim was missing, she and James’ brother began a frantic search for the boy in the building, and finally made the horrifying discovery, she said.
“when [her other son] “On my way back, I saw water in the elevator coming out of the apartment,” she said. “Something just told him to go look at his 4G. He turned the knob and it opened. He went inside and looked around and saw a baby in the bathtub. I saw that there was.
“He pulled the baby out. He knocked for the fourth hour and told his brother to open the door,” she said. “He ran in with the baby and started feeding the baby mouth-to-mouth. Michael pushed him away and started doing chest compressions on him. He thought he could do better.”
Police said Denim was pronounced dead after being taken to Kings County Hospital.
“When they told me they found Denim and he was unresponsive, I started crying,” James’ mother said. “I fell to the floor screaming.
“I rushed home,” she said. “I paid my co-worker $200 for her shift and $45 for her Uber ride home. On the way home, my sister called and told me her baby had died. I was going crazy. I yelled so loud that the driver swerved. When I got home, there were a lot of police.
“I was told Kevin was downstairs,” she added. “They knocked on my door. They asked him, ‘Do you know this woman?’ He told them, “I’ve never seen her a day in my life.” He lives with me. ”
She said her son’s life began to spiral downward when he started smoking the synthetic drug K-2.
“He started smoking it two years ago. He worked at the Bowery Mission,” she said. “A year and a half ago, they gave him an ultimatum: either join the program or be fired. He chose the program. When he came back, I saw a big change. was not seen. His mental state was not correct.”
About two weeks ago, she discussed her son’s work.
“I said, ‘Kevin, what happened?’ He said, ‘I quit.’
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
