wnbc.com - News - Boy, 11, Sentenced In Murder Of 3-Year-Old


            Boy, 11, Sentenced In Murder Of 3-Year-Old
            Tot Slain With Baseball Bat
            POSTED: 7:35 AM EST December 12, 2003
            UPDATED: 1:52 PM EST December 12, 2003
            NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- An 11-year-old Woodbridge boy was sentenced 
            Friday to up to 18 years in the custody of the state juvenile 
            justice system after pleading guilty to murder and kidnapping in the 
            death of a 3-year-old in March.
            Aaron Kean, who was 10 at the time of the crime, told a family court 
            judge that he hit Amir Beeks with a baseball bat and dumped him in a 
            creek because the youngster was bothering him and wanted to use his 
            scooter, people who attended Thursday's closed juvenile proceeding 
            told The Star-Ledger of Newark.
            On Friday, Family Court Judge Roger W. Daley sentenced Kean to up to 
            18 years on the murder charge and added a concurrent four-year term 
            for kidnapping.
            The boy is expected to be sent out of state to a specialized 
            children's mental health facility. Under terms of the sentence, Kean 
            will be evaluated periodically and could be released at any time it 
            is determined that he is rehabilitated. If he is released early, he 
            would be subject to six years of after care supervision, said 
            Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Kuberiet.
            Charges of aggravated sexual assault and weapons offenses were 
            dismissed, though under state law Kean could be subject to 
            registration under Megan's Law for the kidnapping charge.
            Beeks was beaten in Kean's backyard playhouse on March 26 and left 
            in a drainage ditch alongside the older boy's home in the Colonia 
            section of Woodbridge.
            He was found face down in shallow water with his pants down, leading 
            to an initial charge of sexual assault against Kean. Beeks died the 
            next day at JFK Medical Center in Edison.
            The boys had crossed paths less than an hour before the attack at 
            the Henry Inman Branch Library, where Kean had finished his daily 
            tutoring session and Beeks' sister was working on a computer.
            Authorities have described Kean as a deeply troubled youth whose 
            anger intensified after his mother's death from cancer four years 
            ago. He repeatedly fought with neighborhood children and was 
            expelled from two schools in Woodbridge.
            The state Division of Youth and Family Services found that Kean's 
            father, Kurt, physically abused him in 2001. Kurt Kean has denied 
            the charge.
            Beeks' adoptive mother, Rosalyn Singleton, has sued the Board of 
            Education and DYFS for neglecting Aaron.
            "I have to forgive him because I'm a Christian. But I'll never 
            forget what he did to may baby," Singleton said after Friday's 
            21/2-hour sentencing hearing.
            Beeks' aunt, Cynthia Smart, said the sentencing was a relief to the 
            family and that she hoped Kean would "get some help."
            "It's been very difficult. It really hit the family very hard. ... 
            Something must have happened to him in order for a child to do 
            something like this. Hopefully we can put it to rest."