Next-door babysitter’s stepson charged in fatal beat of 3-year-old Brooklyn boy

The stepson of a 3-year-old boy’s next-door neighbor babysitter has been arrested for beating the tot to death, police said Tuesday.

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 fatal blow to the head inside a vacant apartment down the hall from the victim’s apartment on the border of Flatbush and Prospect Lefferts Gardens 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 Monday. “I don’t know if it was arguing or crying. I was in bed so I didn’t get up to check. Then I saw the flashing lights from the ambulance through my window.”

James’s step-parent was babysitting Denim in the apartment in James’ family’s apartment when James left with the toddler, taking him to the vacant apartment across the hall — where he brutalized the boy, according to cops.

James returned to his own apartment with Denim, who was found unconscious in James’ bathtub by first responders.

The apartments were taped off Tuesday as cops continued their investigation.

Doctors at the hospital found trauma to the child’s head and neck. An autopsy later determined those injuries led to the toddler’s death.

The boy’s mother was not home at the time and had asked James’ step-parent to take care of the child, cops said.

Cops first took James into custody on an unrelated outstanding warrant, police said. 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.

James then, in a bizarre turn, claimed he didn’t know the woman — his mother — who told cops he was at the scene of the crime, a law enforcement source said.

Neighbors created a small vigil 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 vigil to her child.

“I wasn’t ready to give him this info at this point,” she remembered. “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 precocious tot.

“I saw him alive at the park a couple of hours before. He was playing on the slide,” she said. “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 recalled. “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 about James’ arrest. She described James’ family as a loud bunch but Kevin always seemed to be the calm one.

“They’re just banging on their floor. Sometimes I hear arguing up there back and forth,” Deloach, 62, said. “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. “When I was having issues with them he gave me his number and told me to call him.”

James’ arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court was pending Tuesday.