Jordan Brown gets another chance at juvenile court

The Prairie Chicken
May 28, 2011

Jordan A Brown, Wampum, Pennsylvania, the now 13 year old who allegedly shot his fathers fiancee, Kenzie Houk in the back of the head two years ago, will be given another chance to have his case tried in juvenile court instead of the adult court system.  Her unborn baby died as a result of her death.

Pennsylvania law allows persons age 11 and above to be tried in adult court for murder charges.  Under certain circumstances the case can be referred to juvenile court, one stipulation being the defendant admits his/her guilt.  In this case, Jordan Brown has denied killing his future step-mother, causing the judge hearing the case to refuse to reassign the court. 

Brown’s attorney, Lourdes Rosado has filed an appeal that Brown was denied his constitutional rights against self-incrimination by being tried in adult court unless there is a confession.

Jordan Brown Hearing goes to Common Pleas Court

Another Chance for Jordan Brown

No go! Jordan Brown, 12, To Be Tried As Adult For Murder  

Jordan A Brown, 11, to be tried as adult for murder

Lawrence County Judge Dominick Motto on Monday, March 29, 2010 ordered the now 12-year-old boy to be tried as an adult.

AP via foxnews.com

March 29, 2010

NEW CASTLE, Pa.
Jordan A Brown, a Pennsylvania boy who was 11 when he allegedly killed his father's pregnant fiancee with a shotgun will be tried as an adult in the death of both the woman and the 8 month fetus. Jordan Brown is charged...in the death a year ago of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk and the unborn boy in their western Pennsylvania farmhouse.

Lawrence County Judge Dominick Motto on Monday ordered the now 12-year-old boy to be tried as an adult. Per Pennsylvania law he could be convicted of anything from involuntary manslaughter to first-degree murder and could face up to life in prison...

A psychiatrist for the prosecution had argued the boy wasn't likely to be rehabilitated in juvenile court.

read entire article here

Boy faces adult trial in death of Pa. woman, fetus
A judge's ruling that a 12-year-old boy will be tried as an adult on charges of fatally shooting his father's pregnant fiancee is an unprecedented move, an advocate for defense attorneys says.
Joe Mandak AP March 30, 2010. This article has a bit more detail about the proceedings.

Jordan A Brown, 11, faces grown up murder charges

CNN.com

Posted February 10, 2010

(CNN) -- In February 2009, her 4-year-old daughter found 26-year-old Kenzie Houk in her bed with a bullet though her head. She was eight months pregnant.

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The search for her killer ended with the most surprising murder suspect residents had ever seen: 11-year-old Jordan Brown, the son of the victim's fiancé.

He is one of the youngest suspects in the country to be charged with homicide, legal experts say. There are two counts of homicide, one covering the fetus.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges in May.

In Pennsylvania, there is no lower limit for the age someone can be charged as an adult with criminal homicide. If convicted, Jordan, now 12, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The question of age is being raised in the Supreme Court this year where the practice of sentencing young people younger than 14 to life in prison without parole is being challenged.

After nearly a year of silence, Jordan's family, friends and attorney are bringing attention to the case...This month, they will launch the Jordan Brown Trust Fund to raise money for his defense.

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A decertification hearing, requesting the judge move the case to the juvenile system, began this month. A decision on whether the case will be tried in the juvenile system or adult courts will likely be made in March, attorneys say.
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The suspect's father has not publicly discussed the case, and CNN has been unable to reach him for comment...

read entire article here

Judge OKs evidence against suspected killer Jordan Brown, 12

Friday, October 02, 2009
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Lawrence County judge will not toss out key evidence in the case of Jordan Brown, 12, who prosecutors say fatally shot pregnant Kenzie Houk, 26, with a 20-gauge shotgun as she lay in bed on Feb. 20, and who is charged as an adult with two counts of homicide. He was 11 at the time of the killing.

His lawyers, Dennis Elisco and David Acker, wanted Common Pleas Judge Dominick Motto to suppress statements the boy made to a state trooper the day of the killing.

They also wanted Judge Motto to throw out evidence gathered from the New Galilee farmhouse that day, including firearms, bloody and soiled clothing, spent ammunition, fingerprints and DNA.

The judge did grant the attorneys' motion to suppress evidence obtained in a search of Jordan's school records, saying his "personal items, writings, clothing ... psychological examinations and other documented information" cannot be used against him... The boy's attorneys have repeatedly said they plan to ask a judge to move his case to juvenile court.

read entire article here
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/

Pennsylvania law states that a child age 10 or over can be charged as an adult for conviction of heinous crimes, such as this one.

Attorneys for Jordan A Brown, held in double murder ask dismissal

Right: Kenzie Houk with her two motherless daughters.

Defense claims evidence improperly gathered, yadda yadda

Thursday, August 27, 2009
By Sadie Gurman
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Attorneys for Jordan A Brown urged a judge to dismiss the case yesterday, days before the boy turns 12.

Jordan Brown will spend his birthday Sunday at the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Detention Center in Erie...

Jordan, who prosecutors say fatally shot Kenzie Houk, 26, at close range in the back of her head, with a 20-gauge shotgun as she lay in bed, is charged as an adult. An adolescent psychologist, Kirk Heilbrun, evaluated Jordan earlier this month and deemed him "amenable to juvenile rehabilitation," Mr. Elisco said.

Dr. Heilbrun, head of the psychology department at Drexel University, couldn't be reached for comment last night...

[Attorneys] Dennis Elisco and David Acker told Lawrence County President Judge Dominick Motto yesterday that prosecutors have not offered enough evidence to charge the boy.

Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo told Judge Motto he has presented "more than probable cause for this case to go forward and pretty close to enough to sustain a conviction. Everything yells that the defendant is responsible," he said.

The boy's relatives as well as Ms. Houk's...declined to talk to reporters after the hour-long hearing, saying their attorneys had advised them not to.

Absent from the hearing was Jordan, a short, pudgy boy who Mr. Elisco said has grown taller and heavier while at the detention center.

...Ms. Houk was pregnant with a full-term boy, Jordan's half-brother, whom she planned to name Christopher after his father. Jordan is also charged with killing the unborn child...

Judge Motto did not set another hearing date. Mr. Elisco said he hopes to file a motion to decertify the case to juvenile court next week.

read article here

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/

Jordan A. Brown, Accused Child Murderer, Back in Court This Week

Accused Child Murderer Back in Court This Week

Regional Headlines
Sunday, 23 August 2009

A disturbing murder case in Lawrence County will go back to court this week.

Attorneys for 11-year-old Jordan Brown will go back to court Wednesday, with the goal of suppressing evidence in his case. He's being charged as an adult in the murder of 26-year-old Kenzie Houk and her unborn son in February.

Houk was the fiance of Brown's father, who fathered the child she was carrying.

The defense team wants a judge to suppress evidence in the killing, including an interview of Brown conducted by police at the child's elementary school on the day of the killings. Their argument is that Brown was not sufficiently notified of his rights at the time of the interview.

The defense is also still trying to get Brown's case moved from adult to juvenile court. An exact date for the hearing has not yet been set.

Jordan A Brown, charged with killing Kenzie Houk, could face a life term

Originally posted March 9, 2009

By Ramit Plushnick-Masti
Associated Press

philly.com

NEW CASTLE, Pa. - Good student. Starting quarterback. Aspiring hunter. By most accounts, 11-year-old Jordan Brown was a typical boy in his rural Pennsylvania community, albeit raised mostly by his father after his mother gave him up.

So it baffles Jordan's friends and neighbors that he is accused of taking a 20-gauge youth shotgun he got from his father for Christmas and fatally shooting his father's pregnant fiancee, the woman who tried hardest to be a mother to him.

"There were no red lights, there were no indications that we should have done something differently," said Timothy McNamee, superintendent of the Mohawk Area School District.
Authorities say the Feb. 20 killing of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk in Wampum, a small community about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, was premeditated. Police say Jordan threw the spent shell casing in the woods, got on the bus, and went to school.

Jordan has been charged as an adult with double homicide and is housed at a juvenile-detention center in Erie. If he is convicted as an adult, he faces life in prison. If his case gets moved to a juvenile court, he would probably spend the next 10 years in a secure juvenile facility.

Jordan's mother, Mildred Krause, was four months pregnant with him when she first entered a courtroom to battle his father, Christopher Brown.

At that time, in March 1997, Krause filed a protection-from-abuse order against Brown, claiming he drank, did drugs, and had threatened to harm her. Apparently unaware Krause was pregnant with his son, Brown was ordered to stay away from her, an order later expunged, according to court records and Brown's attorney, Dennis Elisco.

Immediately after Jordan was born on Aug. 30, 1997, Krause contacted Lawrence County Children and Youth Services requesting that they take custody of the child so her mother could adopt him, according to court documents. Not having the father's consent, the agency declined her request.

Brown, meanwhile, tipped off by Krause's grandmother and brother that she was having his baby, filed an emergency petition with the court, opposing the move to have the child put up for adoption and demanding full custody.

In a back-and-forth battle resolved when Jordan was about 2 months old, a court ruled Krause and Brown would share custody, with the mother getting him four days a week and the father three.

But on Feb. 5, 1999, with the consent of both parents, Christopher Brown was awarded full custody. Court records don't indicate why.

Friends and family say that from February 1999 on, Krause had little contact with her son. They say Brown was a good father and spent a lot of quality time with his son.

The instability that characterized Jordan's formative years, including the fact he might have felt rejected by his biological mother, could have influenced his later behavior, said Daniel Shaw, chairman of the psychology department at the University of Pittsburgh.

"You can easily say it's a risk factor, a very important one, in early childhood that has been linked to . . . antisocial behaviors," Shaw said. However, "it's not usually going to result in the child killing someone at age 11."

Christopher Brown refused to be interviewed for this article but answered a few questions through his attorney. Efforts to reach Krause were unsuccessful.

Through Elisco, Brown said Jordan was a good student, pulling mostly A's and B's, his favorite subjects being math and science. In the last two years, Jordan was the starting quarterback for his midget football team and played baseball.

In May 2008, Jordan's father began dating Houk. By Christmas, they were engaged and had moved into a farmhouse together, along with Jordan and Houk's two daughters, ages 7 and 4. Houk was about six months pregnant.

Houk's family said their daughter tried to include Jordan in everything.

Willard Houk, Kenzie Houk's uncle, said he stopped at the farmhouse a short time after Kenzie Houk and Christopher moved in. He took Kenzie Houk's girls for spins on his motorcycle. Then Kenzie Houk's 7-year-old reminded him that Jordan needed to get a ride, too, "because he's a part of our family now," he said.

Jordan got his ride, but Willard Houk said it seemed strange to him that unlike the girls, who were "bubbly and jumpy," Jordan was barely excited. It made Willard Houk think Jordan needed more men in his life, and he was determined to help.

Willard Houk bought Jordan a present at Christmas. And Jordan got a 20-gauge youth-model shotgun from his father, the one police said he used to shoot Kenzie Houk in the back of the head.
Like many other children in the area, Jordan began target shooting with his father in preparation for the 2009 hunting season, when, at age 12, he would be old enough to get a hunting license.

By Valentine's Day, Willard Houk and Kenzie Houk's father, Jack, thought the boy was a good enough shot to participate in a turkey shoot, so they took Jordan along.

When he had a hard time handling his 20-gauge, Willard Houk let the boy use his 12-gauge. Jordan beat out the older, more experienced men, hitting closest to the target and winning the prize turkey. "He was ecstatic about that," Willard Houk said.

But the Houk family said that despite their efforts - and those made by Kenzie Houk - Jordan had difficulty adjusting to his new life.

Elisco denied there were tensions between Jordan and his new family. "He had a very good relationship with Kenzie," Elisco said. "The accusations of him having rage or warning signs of violence are unfounded."

click here for entire philly.com article

Attorneys for Jordon Brown, child murder suspect seek to have key evidence thrown out

July 3, 2009

By Eric Poole, Calkins Media

timesonline.com

NEW CASTLE, PA — Attorneys for an 11-year-old accused of killing his father’s fiancee and her unborn child sought to suppress much of the evidence, including a weapon that might have been used in the murder, during a hearing Thursday in Lawrence County Court.

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Jordan Brown is accused in the Feb. 20 murder of Kenzie Houk of New Beaver, who was nine months pregnant. She was carrying the unborn son of Brown’s father, Christopher.

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David Acker and Dennis Elisco, Brown’s attorneys, attempted to suppress three elements of the prosecution’s case in the hearing before Judge Dominick Motto: an initial interview state police had with the boy; a search warrant for the home of Houk and Christopher Brown; and a search warrant for Brown’s school records obtained three days after the killing.

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The first two suppression motions could be important to the case. In the interview between state police Trooper Janice Wilson and Brown on Feb. 20 at Mohawk Elementary School, Elisco said in court Thursday, Brown was stripped of his constitutional protections because his father was not present during that questioning.

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It was in that interview that Brown is alleged to have made his first statements about a black truck on the family’s property the morning of Houk’s murder. State police and prosecutors have said inconsistencies with Brown’s statements on the truck were among the factors that led them to suspect the boy.

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George Sperdute, a guidance counselor at Mohawk Elementary School, said school policy dictated that officials attempt to contact Christopher Brown when Wilson asked to speak with Jordan Brown shortly after noon Feb. 20. “At the elementary level, the parents need to be notified,” Sperdute said Thursday.

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Because the school was unable to contact any of Jordan’s family, Sperdute testified that he served as the boy’s advocate during the interview with Wilson. However, Christopher Brown said in his testimony that he never received a call from the school. He said that the school had his cell phone as a contact number and that he was at his home — where he has cell phone coverage — from the time Wilson left the crime scene until after she began talking with Jordan.

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Christopher Brown said that he would have denied Wilson permission to talk with his son. The defense also is contesting a search warrant used to search the Brown-Houk house. A shotgun, which is believed to have been used in the murder, was found in that search. Elisco said the search warrant was invalid because state Trooper Joseph Vascetti neglected to sign a space on the document’s lead page. grasping at straws, here.

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Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo, who is prosecuting the case, said he isn’t concerned about the motions to suppress evidence because the search warrant affidavit of probable cause, which he deemed more important, was signed and sworn by both the trooper and District Judge Jerry Cartwright.

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Bongivengo said Brown was not a suspect and was not in police custody at the time of the initial questioning by Wilson and Miranda-type protections such as the right to have a parent present during the questioning of a child did not apply.

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The defense attorneys also filed motions seeking evidence that they have not received, including ballistics studies on the weapon suspected of being used in the murder.

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Bongivengo said the prosecution is not withholding any evidence and some items are not yet available because they are being examined by the state police crime lab.

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Bongivengo said a decision on the defense filings won’t probably be issued until next month.

Attorneys for Jordan Brown plan to file a motion by next month to have the 11-year-old New Beaver boy tried as a juvenile for the murder of his father’s fiancee and her unborn child.

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Dennis Elisco, one of the attorneys, said Brown will be examined in the next few weeks by what he called an expert psychologist. And then Elisco and co-counsel David Acker will file to have Brown tried in juvenile court.

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“That will happen, but the psychological tests have not been completed,” Elisco said.

Jordon Anthony Brown: Wampum PA boy arraigned on murder charges

Right: Jordan Anthony Brown



Accused boy silent in courtroom



Click here for video

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By Nancy Lowry

CNHI News Service

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NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Jordan Brown sat stiffly at attention Tuesday throughout his two-hour preliminary hearing.

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With his hands cuffed and secured to a belt around his waist, and wearing shackles around his ankles, Jordan could do little more than rest his elbows on the arms of his wooden chair at the defense table and stare straight ahead at the witnesses called by Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo.

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The 11-year-old New Beaver Borough boy is charged with homicide in the death of his father’s fiancée — Kenzie Houk, 26, and her unborn child.

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Wearing a gray polo shirt and dark pants, Jordan was welcomed to the courtroom by his attorney, Dennis Elisco, who put his arm around the boy as the youngster took his seat in the company of two uniformed sheriff’s deputies. Attorney David Acker also is representing Jordan.

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Under Pennsylvania law, the crime requires the accused be charged as an adult.

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Jordan was ordered returned to the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Center in Erie after District Judge David Rishel ruled that sufficient evidence existed to hold him for trial.

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Jordan and Elisco put their heads together several times, and Elisco put his arm around the boy and the back of his chair as Bongivengo presented 10 witnesses.

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Those witnesses talked about the occurrences of Feb. 20, the day Houk — weeks away from giving birth — was found shot to death in her bed in the farmhouse on Wampum-New Galilee Road that she and Jordan shared with her fiancé, who is Jordan’s father, and her two daughters.

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Although he was unable to move his arms, Jordan sometimes sat back in his chair and swung his feet — his legs too short for them to reach the floor when he slid back — while waiting for a witness to enter the courtroom.

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Acker argued that the commonwealth had failed to make its case against the boy and that no evidence — blood, DNA or gunshot residue — conclusively linked him to the shooting.

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“The commonwealth has established that Kenzie Houk died of a gunshot to the head,” Acker said. “They established that Jordan owned a gun, had shot a gun and that his clothing contained gunshot residue.”

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However, Acker said, no testimony established that Jordan had gunshot residue “on his face or hands or his person.”









Jordan Brown Arraignment

Thu, May 7, 2009

By Jeanne Starmack

vindy.com

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The child’s lawyers expect to have their client moved to juvenile court.

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NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The defendant sat at the table in the courtroom, flanked by his two attorneys as the judge explained his rights.

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Judge Dominick Motto, the Lawrence County president judge, slowly and carefully explained the two charges against him — first-degree criminal homicide and first-degree criminal homicide of an unborn child. The judge even took time to explain what a fetus is and asked the defendant if he understood everything.

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Eleven-year-old Jordan Brown, still in the system as an adult in the Feb. 20 shotgun slaying of his father’s girlfriend, Kenzie Houk, 26, and her unborn son at their farmhouse near Wampum, Pa., nodded each time he was asked if he understood.

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His arraignment Wednesday ended then with a report to the judge that contained a not-guilty plea and his signature.

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It was not easy for Debbie Houk, Kenzie’s mother, and Jennifer Kraner, her sister, to watch, they said later.

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“It’s a long process,” Houk said outside the courtroom, adding that she wished Jordan would have pleaded guilty.

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“How can someone sit there and say they’re not guilty when everything is there,” she asserted, referring to the evidence investigators say links the boy to the killing of Kenzie Houk as she lay in bed between 8:30 and 9 a.m. that morning.

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The blended family living at the farmhouse also included Jordan’s father, Chris Brown, and Kenzie Houk’s two young daughters, Adalynn, 4, and Janessa, then 7.

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Investigators allege that after Jordan shot Kenzie Houk in the back of the head, he caught the school bus with Janessa.

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Adalynn found her mother’s body and appealed for help to tree-trimmers working in the yard of the rented farmhouse on Wampum-New Galilee Road.

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State police searching Jordan Brown’s room later that day found what they believe to be the murder weapon — the boy’s youth-model 20-gauge shotgun. Janessa also told investigators that she heard a loud bang inside the house before she and Jordan got on the bus. Chris Brown was at work.

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The boy was charged as an adult because state law requires that anyone over the age of 10 who is charged with first-degree murder go through the adult system first.

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He was lodged at first in the county jail, then sent to a juvenile detention center in Beaver County. He was moved five days afterward to the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Center in Erie after Lawrence County officials decided it would be cheaper to house him there.

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His attorneys have indicated they intend at some point to petition to have the boy moved to the juvenile court system. Atty. Dennis Elisco said after the arraignment that they will still do so as soon as counselors at the Erie center have had enough time to assess the boy. Those counselors will report whether they believe Jordan can be rehabilitated in the juvenile system.

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District Attorney John Bongivengo said Jordan’s case will be placed on the trial list next month, though it is not likely to go to court that soon. There are 400 cases on the list ahead of it, he said. .

Meanwhile, said Debbie Houk, the family needs prayers. Houk’s daughters have been through Easter and one birthday without their mother, she said. Janessa turned 8 on March 16.

They lost a baby brother they were excited about, she said. Kenzie was about two weeks away from giving birth to the boy she was going to name Christopher.

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For Mother’s Day, the girls have a picture that says “best mommy in the world” on it, she said. They have a cross with roses on it, “and we put something in the paper,” she said. She will take the girls to visit their mother’s grave.

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NOTE: The law in Pennsylvania states that an 11-year-old can be tried as an adult. The people of Pennsylvania made this decision long before Jordan murdered his potential step-mother.

11-Year-Old Boy to Stand Trial in Death of Father's Fiancee

March 24, 2009 (AP)

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The clothing of an 11-year-old accused of killing his father's pregnant fiancee had gunshot residue on it, a state trooper testified Tuesday at his preliminary hearing, where the boy was held for trial.

Trooper Troy Scott Steinheiser testified the clothing was taken from Jordan Brown the evening of Feb. 20, the day Kenzie Marie Houk, 26, was found dead in the bedroom of the farmhouse in Wampum, where she lived with her two daughters, Brown and his father, Christopher Brown.

Tests revealed the residue, Steinheiser testified.

Another trooper, Sgt. Kenneth Markilinski, testified that he found a 20-gauge shotgun in Brown's upstairs bedroom and it smelled as though it had recently been fired.

Investigators contend that Brown placed the youth-model shotgun — a Christmas gift from his father — to Houk's head as she slept and shot her once, killing her and causing her unborn son to die of a lack of oxygen. The fetus was nearly full-term. Brown is charged with two counts of homicide.

Brown is charged as an adult; District Judge David Rishel ruled Tuesday that Brown should stand trial. Defense lawyers said they plan to file a motion to transfer the case to juvenile court.

At least one other case of a child allegedly killing a family member is making its way through the courts. In Arizona, a 9-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in the death of his father's co-worker and roommate, 39-year-old Tim Romans.

Romans and the boy's father, Vincent Romero, a 29-year-old employee of a construction company, were shot with a .22-caliber rifle. The murder charge filed in his father's death was dropped as part of the plea deal.

In Pennsylvania, Houk's family has suggested that Brown was envious of Houk, but one of his attorneys has dismissed that claim and said there was no animosity.

Brown was led into the courtroom with his hands cuffed and shackled to a belt on his waist. He appeared to sit calmly throughout the two-hour hearing.

Defense attorneys said they need more evidence to understand what happened. Brown denies shooting Houk, defense attorney Dennis Elisco said. "There's never been an admission," he said.

Christopher Brown attended the hearing but did not speak to reporters.
No trial date has been set.

DA: Blanket is evidence Pa. boy planned to kill

Associated Press

Feb 23, 2009

PITTSBURGH - An 11-year-old boy apparently covered his shotgun with a blanket to keep it hidden when he left his bedroom, went downstairs and fatally shot his father's pregnant girlfriend in the head as she slept, a prosecutor said Monday.

The blue blanket, which has a quarter-sized hole that appeared to be singed from a shotgun blast, supports a claim that the crime was premeditated, Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo said.

Police found the blanket in the farmhouse where the boy, Jordan Brown, lived with his father; the father's girlfriend, Kenzie Marie Houk; and her two daughters, ages 7 and 4. Houk was killed Friday morning while Brown's father was at work and the two girls were in the home, authorities believe.

"The operating theory is that he covered the gun with the blanket to hide it when he came downstairs" from his bedroom to shoot Houk, who was in a first-floor bedroom, Bongivengo said. "It wasn't used to muffle (the shot) or anything, the blanket wasn't thick enough for that."

Got the shotgun for Christmas

Brown got the youth-sized shotgun as a Christmas present, and used it to win a turkey shoot on Valentine's Day.

After shooting Houk, the boy ran to get on a school bus with the 7-year-old, who saw him toss something from his pocket on the ground, Bongivengo said. Police later found a spent 20-gauge shotgun shell at that spot.

The girl later implicated the boy in the killing, saying she saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang, Bongivengo has said.

Brown is charged as an adult with criminal homicide. In Pennsylvania, there is no criminal homicide charge in juvenile court.

"Because the juvenile system only has jurisdiction until he's 21, the last thing I want is a 21-year-old who's going to be out on the streets and willing to kill you," Bongivengo said.

Houk's family told police the boy had threatened her and her 7-year-old daughter in the weeks before the shooting, Bongivengo said. Houk's family has told The Associated Press the boy may have been jealous of Houk and her children.

"If this person were 18, we'd be looking at pursuing the death penalty," Bongivengo said.

Attorney wants case moved

Defense attorney Dennis Elisco has said he plans to ask a judge to move the case to juvenile court and to have the boy released on bail to his father. Brown is being held at the Lawrence County Jail, where jail officials said they don't have adequate accommodations for someone that young. He is being kept separate from the jail's approximately 300 adult inmates.

Elisco didn't return calls for comment Monday. He has said the boy hasn't confessed to the shooting and he doubts the physical evidence will support police's claim that the boy killed Houk with one shot to the back of her head.

The Associated Press could not immediately locate relatives of the boy and his father for comment Monday.

Jordan Brown, 11, charged with murder was avid hunter

By DAN NEPHIN and RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI – 3 days ago

WAMPUM, Pa. (AP) — Hunting is a way of life in the rural area where 11-year-old Jordan Brown regularly practiced target shooting with his 20-gauge, youth model shotgun.

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Here in west-central Pennsylvania, hunting clubs are plentiful, the first day of deer hunting season means a day off from school and turkey shoots are held year round. A month ago, Brown won a turkey at a local shoot against older, more experienced hunters.

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Days later, police believe Brown used the shotgun he planned to take hunting with his dad to fatally shoot his father's pregnant girlfriend. The crime was an anomaly in this small town, where guns are commonplace and children as young as 4 are taught to shoot.

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"Life exists at the expense of other life. You have to kill in order to live," said Jim Tantillo, an environmental philosophy professor at Cornell University in New York, who is also a hunter.
"There's just something very honest about owning the responsibility for the life you take. When you pull that trigger, you know something's going to die," he said.

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In many states, including Pennsylvania, children of any age can fire a rifle or shotgun and hunt with a licensed adult. Rifles and shotguns do not need to be registered or sold with trigger locks.

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States often don't mandate how rifles and shotguns should be stored but do require hunting courses that teach how to store them.

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Authorities believe Brown kept his gun, a Christmas present from his dad, in his bedroom. The boy has been charged as an adult with killing Kenzie Marie Houk, 26, and her unborn son Feb. 20 in an attack police say was planned: Jordan hid the weapon under a blanket so Houk's 7-year-old daughter wouldn't see it as he entered her mother's room. Later, he threw the spent shell casing in the woods, got on the bus and went to school, authorities say.

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"It's one thing to learn to hunt, but it's another thing to let a kid keep a loaded shotgun," said Paul Helmke, president of the Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
"If you are keeping loaded guns around the house and you have kids, you're asking for a tragedy," he said.

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No one tracks sales of youth shotguns, but gun control advocates said manufacturers increasingly focus marketing toward children with smaller, lighter models that are easier for them to handle. Some guns are pink to attract young girls to hunting, which has seen a decline in popularity over the years.

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"The industry portrays (youth gun possession) as risk-free, and when something bad happens, they always blame the kid and not the presence of the gun. We think the risks clearly outweigh the benefits," said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a gun control group in Washington, D.C.

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The Monday after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of Pennsylvania's rifle deer season. Local newspapers are full of pictures of hunters proudly posing with their conquests and lining up at weigh stations to see who scored the biggest buck.

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"It's nothing during hunting season to hear the dogs or the hunters because that's what people do: they hunt," said Kim Kennedy, a 52-year-old waitress who lives on a farm in western Pennsylvania.

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In 2007, 8.9 percent of the 10,086 firearm homicides in 49 states were committed with shotguns and rifles. FBI statistics do not include Florida or Washington, D.C.
The Brown case "violated the basic tenets of firearm safety and hunting safety," said Jerry Feaser, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. "This had nothing to do with hunting."

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Mark Strohecker, 41, grew up a few miles from Wampum and has been hunting since he was 15. His father first took him to a shooting range when he was 14.

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"Your adrenaline's going, your heart's racing, you're real anxious, you can't sleep, you know, you're thinking, 'I'm going to see that big 12-point buck,'" Strohecker said.

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But he said he didn't ask his own son whether he wanted to go hunting until he turned 15. He believes children any younger are not mature enough to be around guns.

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This is a good article for a rousing argument.

Jordon Brown, 11, Wampum, PA: One child is key witness, another is prime suspect

CNHI News Service

New Castle, PA, News

Feb 23, 2009

This undated photo released by the Houk family shows Kenzie Marie Houk with her daughters Jenessa, left, and Adalynn in Wampum, Pa.

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Jordan Brown, 11, is charged in the shooting death of the 26-year-old pregnant mother of two. (AP Photo/The Houk Family)

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NEW BEAVER BOROUGH, Pa. - Jenessa Houk told police Jordan Anthony Brown, 11, “went upstairs and got the guns,” put on his socks and then she heard a boom that sounded like a gunshot, like when her dad was shooting outside.

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Brown, a fifth-grader, had received the youth-sized 20-gauge shotgun for Christmas. He won a turkey shoot with it on Valentine’s Day. Six days later he was accused of killing Kenzie Houk, 26, and her unborn son – his father Christopher Brown’s son – in the rented Pennsylvania farmhouse where the merged families lived.

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A criminal complaint filed against Jordan Brown quoted Jenessa Houk has saying, “He went upstairs and got the guns. Then he came downstairs ... and then, and then he was still in there getting his socks on. Then I went and got my shoes on and then I was standing there and I heard a big boom ... I asked him what it was and he didn’t tell me.”The girl said the boom sounded like a “gun,” explaining she recognized it “because I’ve heard a gun before ... when my dad and mom, when my dad and brother were shooting outside.”

Then, investigators say, Jenessa Houk and Jordan Brown walked down their driveway, climbed into a school bus and went off to school, leaving behind her 4-year-old sister.

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Tree trimmer Steve Cable says he and a half-dozen workers were picking up wood at the rented farmhouse later that morning when Houk’s younger daughter came, crying, out of the house.“She told me, ‘My mommy is dead,’” Cable said.He asked the 4-year-old if she was sure her mother wasn’t just sleeping, and “she said no, she was dead,” said Cable, who gave the child a lollipop and called 911.

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The two girls later went home with their grandmother and the boy went to jail.

Prosecutors have charged Jordan Anthony Brown with criminal homicide and homicide of an unborn child. Kenzie Houk was shot once in the back of the head. She was two weeks from giving birth.

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Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo — noting that under Pennsylvania law he had no choice — has charged the boy as an adult. He called the situation “tragic in every sense of the word.” Jordan Brown was being held without bond in the county jail, segregated from the 185 or adult prisoners also housed there. The boy’s preliminary hearing is set for Thursday morning.

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Bongivengo described Houk’s older daughter — who will be 8 next month — as the main witness. Although not an eyewitness, the district attorney said, she “was there at the time of the shooting,” she heard it and she saw Jordan with the shotgun.

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He has described the gun as a lighter, shorter-stocked model made for younger shooters. Investigators found it in the boy’s bedroom. According to Bongivengo, there were initial reports from the boy about a black truck in the area that the children didn’t recognize. But eventually, he said, “the 7-year-old implicated him. Her statement was very credible. “I think the 7-year-old was fearful,” Bongivengo said, “but when she started talking, her story was consistent” with the circumstances. He said there was no forced entry, no sign of a struggle and no money missing.

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Christopher Brown, employed by a company that makes home furnishings, had already gone to work when his wife and unborn son died. Bongivengo said the 4-year-old didn’t hear the shooting. After the older two children left for school, he said, she turned on the television and got herself something to eat. Then, at some point, she went looking for her mother, found her body and called out to the tree trimmers.

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Now, as law enforcement agents piece together what happened at the farmhouse on Wampum-New Galilee Road, they also struggle to deal with the issue of housing a child in a grownup jail.

“We’re keeping him in a holding cell, separate from the population,” Warden Charles Adamo said. “That’s been all right for now, but if we get an influx of prisoners there could be problems.”

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Generally, he said, new prisoners remain in the booking cells — where Brown is — for 24 hours, then are moved on to the general population. “With him, we can’t do that,” Adamo said. “He can’t be placed with the jail population. He gets no yard time. All he can do is sit there.”

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Adamo said adapting to the young prisoner has been tough.“We have to check on him, visually, every 15 minutes to see how he is doing,” he said. “Holding cells have no television for distraction. As I said, he can’t go into the yard, can’t even take a shower.” The warden said someone on staff offered Brown a Bible, but other than that and meeting several times with his public defender attorney and eating three meals a day since his arrival, that has been the extent of his activity.

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“He’s had no visitors,” the warden said. “There is no place to visit in the holding cells. For a regular visit, we’d have to put him with the regular population and we can’t do that.” Adamo said the only accommodation for the youngster has been by the dietary department. “The cook has been providing more dairy items” he said, “since he needs that.” There’s been talk of moving the boy at a juvenile detention center but, because he is considered an adult in light of the criminal charges, there are issues with doing so.

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Adamo doesn’t expect Jordan Brown will be leaving his jail before Thursday’s hearing. If Brown is found guilty of killing Houk and her baby, the boy could be handed a life sentence, but he’s too young to be considered for the death penalty.“If he lives to his 80s, he’d spend more than 70 years in jail,” Adamo said. “That’s hard to fathom.”

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Relatives have said that Jordan Brown was consumed with jealousy over Kenzie Houk's unborn baby boy and allegedly shot her dead as she lay in bed in the family's Wampum, Pa., farmhouse Friday morning. Houk was two weeks from giving birth. Jordan was charged as an adult with two counts of criminal homicide, including one for the fetus, state police said. "It's tragic," said a relative who did not want to be named. "They were getting married. He was jealous."

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jfUUCNd8ljeuLU4Qr3BF_5pwHXlwD96GBSSO0

Houk's family and friends, who gathered at her parents' house Saturday night, told The Associated Press that Houk had had problems with the boy in the past.

"There was an issue with jealousy. He told my son stuff," said Houk's brother-in-law, Jason Kraner, 34. "He actually told my son that he wanted to do that to her." His actual words were, "I'm gonna pop her in the head."

...The boy had told police there was a suspicious black truck on the property that morning, causing investigators to look into a false lead for about five hours, he said.

Inconsistencies in Brown's description of the vehicle led police to re-interview the victim's 7-year-old daughter, who implicated the boy in the killing, Bongivengo said.

...Jack Houk, Kenzie's father, said the boy and his father used to practice shooting behind their farmhouse, and the two enjoyed hunting together. He didn't know of any recent problems between the boy and his daughter, but said there had been "some tension" in the beginning. Houk said his daughter had been working hard to forge a relationship with the boy.

Kraner, Houk's brother-in-law, said Jordan could be a "rough kid." He said his son was interviewed by police about the boy. Kenzie Houk had been renting the farmhouse in Wampum, a rural community about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, for no more than a year, neighbor Cameron Tucker said.

Tucker's wife sometimes drove Houk's younger daughter to the bus stop because she went to preschool with the Tuckers' 5-year-old. "She was very protective of her kids," he said...

Jordan Anthony Brown, 11, Kills Dad's Pregnant Girlfriend--Wampum, PA

Kenzie Houk Was 8 Months Pregnant With Son
February 24, 2009

WAMPUM, Pa. -- An 11-year-old boy was arrested early Saturday morning and charged in connection with the shotgun slaying of his father's pregnant girlfriend in Wampum, Lawrence County.

Video: Watch Tara Edwards' Report

State police took Jordan Anthony Brown into custody shortly before 3 a.m. He was being held in the county jail, charged as an adult with the homicides of Kenzie Marie Houk and her unborn child. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

"This is something you wouldn't even think of in your worst nightmare," said Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo, adding that "the whole situation is heinous."

Houk, 26, was found dead Friday morning by her 4-year-old daughter at their farmhouse on Wampum New Galilee Road.

State Trooper Michael Markey said the girl ran outside and told employees of a tree-cutting service that her mother was dead. The workers then called 911.

"Something like this, this close to home, it affects all us mothers," said neighbor Tina Potter.
As residents recovered from the shock of what happened inside the farmhouse, the suspect's father was pushing to have his son released on bail.

His attorney met with Brown this weekend and doesn't believe the child is responsible for killing Houk and her unborn baby. But the Lawrence County district attorney said there is more than enough evidence.

Police said that when Brown was questioned he provided false leads. They said it was Houk's 7-year-old daughter who gave investigators major clues.

"She saw him with what she believed was a shotgun and heard a loud bang," Bongivengo said.
Houk's father, Jack, said he hurried to the house after getting a phone call from her boyfriend.

"I said, 'Will you please tell me what's going on?' and he says, 'I can't, you got to get down here immediately,' so I raced down here and police told me that my daughter's passed away and the baby also," Jack Houk said.

Video: Father: 'Who Would Be Crazy Enough To Do That?'

Bongivengo said that Houk was shot in the back of the head as she lay in bed Friday morning.
Police said the weapon was a .20-gauge "youth model" shotgun, which investigators found in the boy's bedroom.

Bongivengo said that the boy and Houk's 7-year-old daughter -- who was also home at the time of the shooting and heard the shot -- both went to school afterward.

Brown's father -- the live-in boyfriend of Houk and the father of her unborn son -- was at work when the shot was fired, police said. At this time, police don't have a motive.

"Usually you hear of murders happening in California or some where like that, not in little towns," said neighbor Donna Simmons.

No charges have been filed against the father. The district attorney said the type of shotgun used doesn't require registration.

Houk's two daughters are staying with their maternal grandparents.

Brown is in the Lawrence County Jail. He could face life in prison if he's charged as an adult and found guilty.

Houk was 8 months pregnant. She was expected to deliver a boy in early March.
"It hasn't really set in yet. It's going to be tough," Jack Houk said.