January 26, 2011 9:08 PM

Jordan Brown Superior Court Appeal: Will Pa. Boy be Tried as an Adult for Murder?

By
Kevin Hayes
Topics
Daily Blotter

Jordan Brown Superior Court Appeal: Will Boy be Tried as an Adult for Murder?

Jordan Brown Mug Shot (AP Photo/Lawrence County Prison via Beaver County Times)

PITTSBURGH (CBS/KDKA/AP) Jordan Brown was only 11-years-old when he was arrested and charged as an adult for the murder of his father's pregnant fiance.

PICTURES: Kenzie Houk

A three judge panel of the Superior Court met in Pittsburgh Tuesday to hear from both sides as to whether or not the boy should in fact be tried as an adult, reports CBS station KDKA.

Now 13, Brown is charged with shotgunning 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, also killing her unborn son, in their New Galilee farmhouse in February 2009.

A Lawrence County judge in March refused to move Jordan Brown's case to juvenile court. Judge Dominick Motto found that the boy showed no signs of remorse and did not take responsibility for his actions.

Two judges questioned whether Brown has had his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination violated by Motto. Some of the appellate judges at Tuesday's hearing wondered whether Brown would be forced to give up his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in order to be certified as a juvenile.

"I lost my baby and my grandson," Houk's mother, Debbie Houk, said. "My daughter's not coming back. My two little girls lost a mother and a brother they waited on. So, what gives you the right to think that [Brown] can walk away?...The system has been fair."

It could take several weeks or even months before a decision is reached.

Brown faces life in prison if convicted as an adult, but will be free by age 21 if he's tried in juvenile court.

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF JORDAN BROWN ON CRIMESIDER

14 Photos

Kenzie Houk Pregnant and Murdered

View the Full Gallery »


Add a Comment
by ted409 May 11, 2011 9:21 AM EDT
i dont know how anyone can think this kid did it
investigators blew off all the stuff he told them about a red truck parked outside when he left for school as attempting to distract the investigation
his dad has been threatened in a bar with a gun by the deceased womans former boyfriend then authorities said filing a complaint would make things harder on the boy. AS IF BEING TRIED AS AN ADULT ISNT ENOUGH ALREADY
i dont belive this kid is dead
they found only a small number of shot pellets just about the same amount as in a snake shot shell from a pistol
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by lovellboys2 March 16, 2011 4:23 PM EDT
He had to admit guilt in order to be tried as a juvenile.....WHAT? He says he is not guilty, so he is innocent until proven so. The judge says he shows no remorse.....meaning the judge is already convinced of his guilt. He deserves to be proven innocent or guilty, and the decision on what court will hear his case should not depend on remorse, it should depend on the facts of the case.
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by ilpalazzo-2009 March 9, 2011 4:41 PM EST
I love how some commentators already assume he's guilty of the crime and are ready to lay judgement.
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by graceness February 2, 2011 12:04 AM EST
http://freejordanbrown.proboards.com/index.cgi

INNOCENT BOY RAILROADED BY COPS!
Reply to this comment
by ladybug1995 February 1, 2011 8:30 PM EST
He needs to spend life in prison. Little boy or not.
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by mommy2four February 1, 2011 3:37 PM EST
I think that he should be tried as an adult. I am a mother and have 2 say if my kids were stupid enough 2 do something like that then they will need 2 be charged as an adult 2. His father shouldn't of had a gun layin around the house eather.
Reply to this comment
by singmama February 1, 2011 2:34 PM EST
Richelle,
I totally agree that this "child" should be charged as an adult. I DO have children and if one of mine would have agreed with him being charged in adult court. This young man has ruined so many lives by his actions and if he would have been a few years older we wouldn't be having this conversation! What gives him the right to take a life and get away with it? I say lock him up and throw away the key!!!
Pam from Canada
Reply to this comment
by charstackpole January 27, 2011 7:21 PM EST
Oh Yea, one more thing. Did he confess? What 11 year old would not break down and confess if they actually committed the crime? Every 11 year old I have ever known breaks down and cries for even the smallest infraction when confronted with evidence, never mind murder. He was literally a baby! who lied only 11 years of his life who now looks like a brute. So not fair and who can change this system of ours?
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by charstackpole January 27, 2011 7:12 PM EST
I'm not sure, but I think if I had access to a shotgun when I was 11 years old, I may have shot my step dad. Shame on everyone who allows guns to be accessible to children. If everyone had them laying around, more children would be taking their parents out for many reasons that don't make sense to an adult and they are too young to understand the consequences.

I personally don't think that he was involved....and if he was, he was encouraged somehow, even if it was verbally.
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by stephensy January 27, 2011 5:04 PM EST
Many would ask if there is a chance that Jordan Brown will be acquitted and the short answer is "Yes, eventually." But I emphasize "eventually." The scandalous thing about this case is that there is, from Jordan's perspective, no short answer. He has already spent 15% of his life in captivity, and his case has not even gone to trial. If this case drags out for another year, he will have spent more than 20% of his life in jail for something he didn't do.

Now here is the really sick thing: there is no incentive for the Neanderthal State to give Jordan a speedy trial. The longer the state can drag this out, the better it is for them-win or lose.

When Jordan was snatched out of his bed in the middle of the night and thrown into an adult jail, he was a little kid whose feet dangled above the floor when he sat in a chair. Now his feet touch the floor, and he's forty pounds heavier. If the state can drag this out long enough, he'll be shaving by the time he comes to trial. He won't look so small and innocent. He will have been hardened by his contact with young criminals. He will just look more like someone who could have committed a crime, whether he really did or not.

Even if the state loses, it is better for some of the players if this happens in the distant future and not now or soon. Why? Because the Neanderthals have been pursuing their persecution of this child without any evidence that he committed thes heinous murders.

All along the prosecutors have claimed there is "solid" or "strong" evidence that is the basis of their case against Jordan. But they have never shown us the evidence. They've only claimed they have it, and they have been making this claim up until the present day.

Example from an October 1, 2009 statement as reported in the media: "The prosecution argued that Brown had gunshot residue on his shoulder?" Do you know how much gunshot residue was found on the shoulder of his shirt? Only one particle where there should have been thousands! "?and that his youth shotgun-found in the boy's bedroom-smelled as if it had been recently fired." Well, yes, the shotgun had been fired the day before the murder and Jordan had not cleaned it. But the prosecution has never admitted that the shotgun was not, and could not have been, the murder weapon. The prosecution's own "strong evidence" shows that the entry wound was too small for the cause of death to have been a shotgun blast. There were too few pellets recovered from Kenzie's wound and from the crime scene for it to have been a shotgun death. A handgun loaded with a shotshell was the murder weapon. This is the only conclusion to be drawn from the physical evidence the state actually has.

If Jordan had used his shotgun as the police and prosecutors have claimed, he should have been covered from head to foot with gunpowder residue, as well as blood and brains-but he was not. Kenzie's face should have been horribly disfigured, but it was not. A Houk family relative claimed that there had been postmortem facial reconstruction so there could have been an open-casket funeral, but I learned that this was a lie. The funeral director expressed surprise that no such reconstruction was necessary.

Much has been made by the prosecution of a supposed threat by Jordan to "pop" Kenzie and her daughters-a claim carefully examined by Kenzie herself and found not to have been credible. The source of this fantastic claim was a Houk family member who is a convicted felon and purported drug dealer. How much credence should be given to his story? According to Kenzie (who should surely have known better than any of us): "None."

Another example from a February 23, 2009 media report: "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 said. '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." How much gunpowder residue-or blood and brains-did the state crime lab find on the blanket? None. The hole in the blanket proved to have been nothing more than an old cigarette burn.

And yet this same blue blanket appears prominently in a third late-night police interview of Jenessa Houk, Jordan's 7-year-old stepsister who had given police 2 previous interviews earlier in the day which did not implicate Jordan in any way. The crime lab's analysis of the blue blanket provides strong evidence that Janessa's 3rd interview was most likely coerced and manipulated by the police interviewer Trooper Janice Wilson, who has since retired from the state police.

The state has been lying all along about the strength of its evidence, and it is in the state's interest that the evidence not be shown for what it is or should I say isn't? until all the liars are retired and sipping Pi?a Coladas on some distant beach.
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