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Boy arraigned on murder charges
TweetThe child’s lawyers expect to have their client moved to juvenile court.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The defendant sat at the table in the courtroom, flanked by his two attorneys as the judge explained his rights.
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.
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.
His arraignment Wednesday ended then with a report to the judge that contained a not-guilty plea and his signature.
It was not easy for Debbie Houk, Kenzie’s mother, and Jennifer Kraner, her sister, to watch, they said later.
“It’s a long process,” Houk said outside the courtroom, adding that she wished Jordan would have pleaded guilty.
“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.
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.
Investigators allege that after Jordan shot Kenzie Houk in the back of the head, he caught the school bus with Janessa.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kenzie 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.
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.
Comments
Jordan may have been very neglected by the live in. I do not condone his actions. I just think he was neglected and did not know how to handle his emotions. The victim was young and may not have cared for him. She was naming the baby after the dad (sad for Jordan), instead of making Jordan feel comfortable about the upcoming child. Also, judging by the immediate expression of dislike for Jordan from the Houk family, I believe the boy feared he was going to lose the dad and acted on impulse. Jordan not having an active relationship with birth mom may have added to his insecurity. Also, the birth mom is raising a 12 year old daughter, not him. (sad for Jordan) The victim, the dad, are guilty of child endangerment. The legal system is guilty of cruel and unusual punishment by putting the boy through the adult system, housing him in an adult jail, in isolation, bringing him to two juvenile centers, (why if he is an adult???) shackling him in adult court proceedings, and pretending that if we speak slow and clear and break down the big legal words to Jordan, he automatically gets to be an "adult". Unbelievable. Had one of the Houk's daughters got upset with Chris Brown and took the gun and shot him, my bet is the family would be saying Chris was a bastard and they would hand little Jordan back over to grandma to raise him. Adults need to take responsibility for the things they put children through. The legal system needs to recognize the pain children go through when they are neglected. Compassion heals, never know what is a head of us.
This case haunts me! I look at the face of this little boy and think, "Murderer?" I have read the stories of him being charged as an adult and think, “What has our legal system come to?” I have read that he was kept in isolation and where he was taken into court in handcuffs and shackles. Why would they ever feel the need to handcuff or shackle an 11 year old boy? Where did they think this little boy was going to run to??? I also have to ask myself, “How much drugs do they have this child on?” Since it seems to be the medical communities answer to every problem, with every child now days to slap them on some Ritalin.
I have also read all the articles and seen the videos of the victim’s family speaking out in her behalf, but have only seen one article by the little boy’s uncle in his behalf. Where is this little boy’s father? His mother? His grandmother?
They go on and on in the one article about how carefully the judge explained the charges to him and how the child nodded each time he was asked if he understood. Do these people not comprehend that just because a child shakes his head up and down does not mean he really understands? HELLO, this kid is 11 years old. This is a CHILD for GOD Sake! He has no REAL idea of what he has done. What makes people think that children come with some kind of a built in manual of what is right or wrong. They learn what they are taught. Did anyone teach this child that taking another persons life is wrong? Who his dad?
The same article states his attorney will ask the judge to move the case to the juvenile court system as soon as counselors at the Erie center have had enough time to assess the boy. This murder happened in February and this is May. Has anyone talked to this boy? Another article states his dad is the only person that is allowed to visit him. This is the man who gave him the gun and taught him to kill things with it. Is anyone else talking to this child???
There was a post someone left asking another lady who was saying a lot of the same things I am saying if she would take this murder into her home with her family. Just in case anyone wants to know, YES I WOULD! This is a lost little boy who is being abused by our legal system and shunned because of the horrific act he committed. BUT, I repeat did anyone ever teach this child that killing is wrong? Does he really understand the consequences of his actions? I do not think so.
i also believe this child was and is emotionally disturbed. mom is raising a 12y.o daughter. and daddys girlfriend is having a baby. im sure this child is lost in the feeling that maby no one wants him.