Kevin Gavin pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Supreme Court on April 24, 2026, to murdering three older women who lived in his building, a New York City Housing Authority development for seniors in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Myrtle McKinney was 82 when she was stabbed in her apartment in November 2015. Jacolia James was 83 when she was killed in hers in April 2019. Juanita Caballero was 78 when she was strangled in hers in January 2021, during a robbery. Gavin, a handyman, did repairs and ran errands for older tenants, and prosecutors said that was how he came to be trusted inside the women's homes.
The deaths went unsolved until 2021, and the building's tenants and their elected officials spent much of that time pleading for security cameras. The case broke within a week of the third killing, when surveillance video showed Gavin using Caballero's debit card. He was arrested on January 21, 2021, and confessed to all three killings, telling detectives that each one grew out of an argument over money he said the woman owed him. In April 2026, at 71, he admitted the murders in court, and on May 20, 2026, Justice Dineen Ann Riviezzo sentenced him to 30 years to life in prison.
Little is known about Kevin Gavin's early life. Prosecutors gave his age as 66 at his indictment in March 2021 and 71 when he pleaded guilty in April 2026, and described him as a resident of Brownsville. His date and place of birth, his schooling and his family background were not reported.
He lived in the same building as the three women. News 12 noted in 2026 that he lived there even though the building was designated for seniors. What he did for a living was less clear. PoliticsNY reported at the time of his arrest that his current occupation was unknown. Prosecutors called him a handyman, and police and prosecutors agreed that he did odd jobs for tenants in exchange for money. At the press conference announcing his arrest, NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said Gavin knew the residents and ran errands for some of the elderly tenants, and the Brooklyn Paper reported police as saying he gained access by presenting himself as a friendly, helpful neighbor to people with physical impairments.
He was not a stranger to the police. Spectrum News NY1 reported that he had a past criminal record, and that authorities described those arrests as mostly drug-related. PoliticsNY likewise reported prior drug-related arrests. The details of those cases, and any sentences, were not reported.
The development where the killings took place is a New York City Housing Authority complex in Brownsville set aside for elderly tenants. The Amsterdam News described it in 2021 as a NYCHA senior housing development, and CBS New York reported in 2015 that the building was mostly home to elderly residents.
Its security became a public issue after the second death. In May 2019 tenants told CBS New York that the building had only one security guard, on duty from 5 p.m. to midnight, and no security cameras. A month later, at a joint City Council hearing of the committees on public housing and public safety, NYCHA's director of safety and security, Raymond Rodriguez, confirmed that there were still no cameras there. He said the process of installing them had been sped up after the second killing and that the authority had already obtained prices for the equipment, the Brooklyn Eagle reported. At the same hearing, Carolyn Jasper, NYCHA's vice president for public housing operations, testified that the authority had installed 16,600 cameras across more than 200 developments over two decades, each lasting about ten years; asked whether all of them were working, she said she could not say. By January 2021, a NYCHA spokesperson told NY1, the building had a lobby camera, security doors and locks, and a security guard, and the authority was working with city partners to speed up installation of closed-circuit cameras.
Myrtle McKinney was 82 and lived alone in the building. Her home health aide found her in her apartment in November 2015; police sources told CBS New York that the discovery came on Monday, November 9. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Prosecutors later fixed the date of her killing as on or about November 8, 2015.
At first her death was not treated as a crime. Her doctor signed a death certificate, dated December 1, that gave the cause as complications from hypertension and diabetes. The doctor had not viewed her body, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at the time, and so could not have known she had been killed. Only when staff at a funeral home were preparing her for burial did they find that she had been stabbed. The city's Medical Examiner then ruled her death a homicide, and in December 2015 officials announced that they were investigating it as one. CBS New York reported that, as of that evening, police had named no suspect and could not explain why it had taken so long to determine that the death was not natural. They sealed her apartment while they collected evidence.
Her neighbors remembered her as a gentle presence. One neighbor of many years told CBS New York that she was a kind woman who never bothered anybody, and a woman who worked in the building said she used to see her walking the hallways. The Amsterdam News later reported that police found no sign of robbery in her case. The killing went unsolved until 2021.
Reports spell her surname two ways. Prosecutors wrote it as McKinney in each of their releases, while CBS New York and several broadcasters wrote McKenny.
Jacolia James was 83. A neighbor described her to ABC7 New York as a devout Christian who had given her a palm on Palm Sunday, and called her "Jackie," a lovely lady. She was killed in her apartment on or about April 30, 2019, according to prosecutors. A police spokesperson told PoliticsNY that officers had responded near midnight that day to a 911 call about an unconscious woman, after her grandson found her. Early reports described her as beaten to death; the prosecutors' 2021 indictment release said she had been strangled.
Her death, the second killing of an elderly woman in the building in less than four years, set off the tenants' campaign for better security. In early May 2019 her children, other relatives and friends gathered at the complex to call for it. Her daughter told CBS New York that the family was raising its voice so that officials would hear, and that she wanted her mother's death to serve a purpose. The tenant association president said the residents felt forgotten. Members of the community group Man Up Inc. began daily patrols around the building, saying they would continue until NYCHA made changes. In a statement, the housing authority said it was deeply saddened by what it called an abominable crime against one of its senior residents and promised to work with elected officials, agencies and community partners to make residents safer.
In June 2019, at the City Council hearing, Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel asked NYCHA officials how an 83-year-old woman could be killed in her own apartment with no one knowing who did it. NYPD Chief of Housing James Secreto said both deaths in the building were under investigation and that police had increased their coverage of the address. No one was charged at the time. Prosecutors said in 2021 that DNA recovered from her body had been matched to him.
Juanita Caballero was 78. She was killed in her apartment on or about January 14, 2021, strangled during a robbery, prosecutors said. Her adult son found her when he arrived on the afternoon of Friday, January 15, the Amsterdam News and PoliticsNY reported. Emergency workers pronounced her dead at the scene. She was the third older resident of the building to be killed since 2015, and the Amsterdam News reported that police at first saw no sign of robbery.
The next morning, Saturday, January 16, Council Member Inez Barron and Assembly Member Charles Barron held a press conference at the complex and demanded that cameras be installed at once in the building's halls and elevators. Inez Barron said this was the third homicide of a resident inside her own apartment there in a few years, and that the first two remained unsolved. A local activist told the Amsterdam News that residents had been asking for patrols since the first killing. Jacolia James's daughter spoke too, urging that the safety of seniors be taken seriously. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea did not respond to the paper's request for comment.
What tied the three deaths together was Caballero's money. Prosecutors said that in the days after her death Gavin used her stolen debit and benefit cards, and that video surveillance captured him doing so; by the time he pleaded guilty, they said the video showed him using her debit card at several locations. Detectives from the 73rd Precinct and the NYPD's Brooklyn North Homicide squad arrested him on January 21, 2021. NY1 reported that police said her case yielded additional forensic evidence that tied him to all three homicides.
He confessed. News 12 reported in 2026 that he had confessed on tape after his arrest, and prosecutors said he admitted all three killings. According to the indictment release, he told investigators that he had argued with each of the women over money he claimed she owed him. In 2026 prosecutors said investigators had linked the earlier killings to the latest one through the similar ages and living conditions of the victims and the fact that all three lived in the same development.
Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison announced the arrest at police headquarters on January 21, 2021, alongside Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Harrison said Gavin knew the residents and ran errands for some of the elderly tenants, that forensic evidence connected him to the killings, and that the killings may have grown out of arguments over money or finances. Gavin was initially charged with three counts of murder in the second degree, PoliticsNY and NY1 reported. He did not speak to reporters as detectives walked him out of the 73rd Precinct.
Gonzalez said he was confident a grand jury would indict once it heard the evidence. He said Gavin had taken advantage of his relationship with the women, who let him into their homes, and called them beloved mothers, grandmothers and neighbors. He acknowledged the fear residents had lived with, and said he hoped the arrest would bring some comfort to the area.
The families spoke out the same day, at a separate news conference outside the building. Jacolia James's grandson thanked the police and said he hoped the suspect would be prosecuted. Juanita Caballero's son said NYCHA had failed the families and asked when the authority would install cameras in the building. Local leaders and residents, NY1 noted, had held their own news conference less than a week earlier demanding more police resources, and some said they had been asking for more security since the first killing.
The questions did not stop with the arrest. On the Sunday after it, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams held a virtual news conference about deaths and injuries in NYCHA buildings, citing underfunding and neglect. "There's a failure at every level of government, and I'm sick of it," he said, according to CBS New York. NYCHA said it was working to speed up the installation of more closed-circuit cameras at the development.
On March 2, 2021, District Attorney Gonzalez announced that Gavin, then 66, had been arraigned on an indictment charging him with one count of murder in the first degree and three counts of murder in the second degree. Justice Vincent Del Giudice of Brooklyn Supreme Court ordered him held without bail and set his next court date for July 6, 2021. Prosecutors said he faced up to life without parole on the top count if convicted.
The indictment release set out the accusations. It alleged that on November 8, 2015, at about 2 p.m., he stabbed Myrtle McKinney; that on April 30, 2019, at about 11:45 p.m., he strangled Jacolia James; and that on January 14, 2021, at about 10 a.m., he strangled Juanita Caballero during a robbery. It said he did odd jobs for the women and other tenants for money, that DNA recovered from James was matched to him, and that video showed him using Caballero's stolen debit and benefit cards days after her death. "This defendant is an alleged serial killer who murdered three of his elderly neighbors who trusted him," Gonzalez said. He added that the deaths had shaken the housing complex and the wider Brownsville community, and promised to seek justice for the victims and for the relatives and friends they left behind. The Homicide Bureau chief, Assistant District Attorney Tim Gough, was assigned to the case with Senior Assistant District Attorney Matthew Midey.
The case stayed in the courts until 2026 and ended without a trial. On Friday, April 24, 2026, Gavin, by then 71, pleaded guilty before Justice Dineen Ann Riviezzo of Brooklyn Supreme Court to one count of murder in the first degree and three counts of murder in the second degree, in exchange for a promised sentence of 30 years to life.
In his plea, prosecutors said, he admitted that on or about November 8, 2015, he fatally stabbed Myrtle McKinney inside her apartment; that on or about April 30, 2019, he killed Jacolia James inside hers; and that on or about January 14, 2021, he strangled Juanita Caballero inside hers while robbing her. News 12 reported that relatives of James and Caballero broke down in tears in the courtroom as he admitted the killings, and described the plea as an important step for the families, though not an end. The plea spared the families a trial; News 12 reported that it still left Gavin able to appeal.
Gonzalez said Gavin had exploited elderly women who trusted him and gained access to their homes, and had acted as a serial killer inside his own apartment building. He described the women as vulnerable neighbors who deserved safety and dignity. Assistant District Attorney Cassandra Pond, deputy chief of the office's Green Zone bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of the Homicide Bureau chief, Assistant District Attorney Leila Rosini.
On May 20, 2026, Justice Riviezzo imposed the promised sentence of 30 years to life in prison. In announcing it, Gonzalez called the killings acts of depravity and cruelty against three elderly women who should have been safe in their own homes, and said Gavin had exploited their trust and taken their lives with brutal violence. His office again set out that Gavin had gained access to the women by doing handyman work and errands for them, and that he had told detectives the killings grew out of disputes over money he claimed they owed him.
Where Gavin would serve his term was not announced at his sentencing.
Some matters raised during the investigation were not settled in court.
A fourth death. In January 2021 Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel said that an elderly man living in the building had died on September 3, 2019, in circumstances she called suspicious, PoliticsNY reported. She argued that cameras alone were not enough and called for security guards around the clock in senior housing. Gavin was not charged in that death.
The cause of Jacolia James's death. Early reports in 2019 said she had been beaten to death. The 2021 indictment release said she was strangled, while the 2026 plea and sentencing releases described a beating. The plea settled that Gavin murdered her, not the precise cause.
Motive. Gavin's own account, as prosecutors relayed it, was that each killing followed an argument over money he said the woman owed him for his work. The Amsterdam News reported in January 2021 that police had found no sign of robbery in the first and third deaths, but prosecutors later charged, and Gavin admitted, that Juanita Caballero was killed during a robbery. Whether money was taken in the first two cases was not reported.
The delay. Relatives, tenants and local officials argued throughout that the absence of cameras and guards had left the building's elderly residents exposed, and that the killings would have been solved sooner with better security. Those claims were made in press conferences and at a City Council hearing; no court ruling on them was reported.
November 8, 2015 (on or about): Myrtle McKinney, 82, is stabbed in her apartment in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
November 9, 2015: her home health aide finds her; her death is first attributed to natural causes.
December 2015: after funeral home staff find that she was stabbed, the Medical Examiner rules her death a homicide and police open an investigation.
April 30, 2019 (on or about): Jacolia James, 83, is killed in her apartment in the same building.
May 2019: her family and tenants rally at the complex for security cameras and guards; Man Up Inc. begins patrols.
June 2019: at a City Council hearing, NYCHA confirms the building still has no cameras.
January 14, 2021 (on or about): Juanita Caballero, 78, is strangled in her apartment during a robbery.
January 15, 2021: her son finds her.
January 16, 2021: Council Member Inez Barron and Assembly Member Charles Barron demand cameras at a press conference at the complex.
January 21, 2021: Kevin Gavin, 66, is arrested after video shows him using Caballero's debit card; he confesses to all three killings, and police announce the arrest.
March 2, 2021: the Brooklyn District Attorney announces his arraignment on an indictment for murder in the first degree and three counts of murder in the second degree; Justice Vincent Del Giudice orders him held without bail.
April 24, 2026: Gavin, 71, pleads guilty to all four counts before Justice Dineen Ann Riviezzo.
May 20, 2026: he is sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.