Handyman Pleads Guilty to Killing Three Elderly Women Living in Same Brooklyn Building

Sadistic serial killer Kevin Gavin murdered three elderly women living at the same New York City high-rise apartment building during a span of six years by ingratiating himself to them as their “helpful handyman.”

Gavin, 71, was arrested on Jan. 21, 2021, after he was caught on store surveillance cameras using a debit card belonging to third victim Juanita Caballero, 78, who was found days earlier with a telephone cord tightly wrapped around her neck, The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.

However, Darrin James tells Globe he believes Juanita would be alive today if police had heeded his warnings and investigated the creep following the stomping death of his 83-year-old grandmother, Jacolia James — Gavin’s second victim — whose battered body was discovered in her 11th-floor apartment on April 30, 2019.

“She was perfectly fine when I left, and when I came back, she was dead,” Darrin says, recalling the chilling moment he saw Gavin, who lived on the sixth floor, trying to sweet-talk his way into his grandma’s apartment that same morning.

“They tried to pin her murder on me; they tried to say I did it,” Darrin, 40, says. “I feel if they would’ve focused on the information I gave them and went and talked to the guy that knocked on my grandmother’s door there wouldn’t have been a third victim!”

The reign of terror at the Carter G. Woodson Houses for senior citizens began Nov. 8, 2015, when 82-year-old Myrtle McKinney was found inside her apartment with a stab wound to the neck, three broken ribs and blunt force trauma of the head and body, according to Intelligencer.

“This defendant exploited elderly women who trusted him, gained access to their homes, and murdered them in a series of brutal attacks that shocked the conscience,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, per the press release.

Gavin eventually pleaded guilty to murder in Brooklyn Supreme Court in exchange for 30 years to life on April 24, and he will be officially sentenced on May 20 after family members are given the chance to rip into him during their victim impact statements.

“He was like a complete weirdo — like the type of dude that would try to press up against an elderly woman that can’t defend herself,” Darrin tells Globe. “He was the neighbor from hell!”