And it was Nigerian hitman Obafemi Martins who did the damage with a two-goal salvo as Villa missed the chance to go third.
It means that Kinnear has now lost only one of his five games in charge and importantly for the Geordie fans, his Newcastle side are now ahead of arch rivals Sunderland.
Martins opened the scoring on the hour mark and then wrapped it up after 82 minutes when he put the finishing touch to a brilliant Jonas Gutierrez run.
Kinnear made one change when he brought in fit-again Nicky Butt for Danny Guthrie, while Michael Owen was named on the bench having missed the last three games.
Incredibly, Sunday's tea-time kick-off at Fulham means that Newcastle's last six league games will all have been shown live on television, that's every match since Kinnear took charge.
Shay Given made his 450th league appearance for a Newcastle side that went into the game anchored to the bottom of the Premiership table.
Martin Lausen's aerial power from set-pieces was evident after ten minutes when he rose well to a Gareth Barry corner but could not direct his header on target.
At the other end Martins showed his unpredictability with a good touch followed by a quick shot on the turn that whistled over the bar from 30 yards.
Gabriel Agbonlahar missed an unbelievable chance after 22 minutes that he started by feeding James Milner on the right. The former Newcastle returned the ball straight into the path of his England Under-21 team-mate, who from just six yards out allowed the ball to run through he legs.
Newcastle retaliated and a Joey Barton 30-yarder was well held by Brad Friedel.
Martins caused panic in the Villa defence with his direct running and trickery on the right before launching a ferocious drive that flew wide of Friedel's near post.
A Villa counter-attack caught United at the back and Ashley Young struck his shot well enough only to see it loop off a brave Given and out for a corner.
Steven Taylor was inches away from giving Newcastle a 40th minute lead after starting the move that ended with him narrowly making contact with Habib Beye's right-wing cross.
Revitalised United grew in confidence and dominated the second half urged on by a fervent home crowd.
And the deadlock was broken on the hour mark when Barton picked out Martins with his back to goal and he cleverly lost Martin before beating Friedel from the edge of the box with a low left-foot drive.
Once in front, United oozed with confidence, none more than Shola Ameobi who was difficult to handle especially following an arm in the face from Laursen.
This seemed to galvanise Ameobi and indeed lifted Newcastle, who scored a stunning second goal to seal victory eight minutes from time.
Gutierrez was inspirational with a stunning run down the left before cutting down the byline to pick out Martins, who bundled the ball into the net from close range to make sure that it was game over.