Cops have finally nabbed a suspect in the gruesome 2005 slaying of a gay Brooklyn teen whose body was dismembered and dumped around the city, but the man insisted in court Wednesday that he couldn’t have committed the crime — because he “can’t even dissect a frog.”
Kwauhuru Govan, 38, who was already locked up on another slay rap involving a Brooklyn girl a year earlier, was arrested at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Rikers Island on a charge of second-degree murder for the slaying of 19-year-old Rashawn Brazell, sources said.
The severed limbs of Brazell, an aspiring website designer, were found on subway tracks Feb. 17, 2005 — three days after he disappeared — prompting fears at the time that there was a killer transit worker on the loose.
A transit worker made the gruesome discovery inside a blue plastic bag.
Brazell’s torso turned up at a recycling plant six days later. His head was never found.
On the last day Brazell was seen alive, he told people he was meeting a tax preparer, but cops have said that may have been a ruse.
Govan was nabbed as the result of a Brooklyn Supreme Court indictment and DNA linked him to the crime, sources said.
For his arraignment in Brooklyn Supreme Court, Govan was dragged into the courtroom by officers while screaming, “They’re framing me for murder! I can’t even dissect a frog!”
Govan had already been arrested in November for the 2004 murder of 17-year-old Sharabia Thomas.
Thomas was last seen by her younger sister, Rachel, on Feb. 11, 2004, as Rachel left for school. Her naked body was found hours later abandoned in a Bushwick alley, bent and stuffed into a laundry bag.
In that case, Govan was arrested after the NYPD’s Cold Case Squad and the DA’s Forensic Science Unit sought out and retested the victim’s 12-year-old fingernail clippings — and allegedly found traces of the suspect’s DNA under them.
When cops picked up Govan for Thomas’ murder, he was serving time in a Florida prison for armed robbery.
In 2004, he lived two blocks away from Thomas’ family home in Bushwick.
Govan pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping in the Thomas murder case.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona