Boy’s homicide case prompts mixed emotions in Wampum

By Katie Seminara

WAMPUM, Pa. — A preliminary hearing Thursday is the next legal step for an 11-year-old Lawrence County boy charged with criminal homicide.

Jordan Anthony Brown, of Wampum, Pa., has been charged with killing the 26-year-old fianc e of his father, Christopher Brown, and her unborn child.

Kenzie Marie Houk was found shot to death Friday in the couple’s Wampum-New Galilee Road farmhouse.

Houk’s unborn child, given the name Christopher Allen Houk-Brown, was 19.5 inches and weighed 7.4 pounds. The baby died within minutes after the shooting due to a lack of oxygen, according to Lawrence County Coroner Russell Noga.

Houk was eight months into her pregnancy and also had two daughters, 7-year-old Jenessa and 4-year-old Adalynn, who also lived in the house shared by Houk, Jordan and Jordan’s dad, Christopher.

Jordan is charged as an adult with criminal homicide and has been in Lawrence County Jail since Saturday. The boy is being moved to Allencrest Juvenile Detention Center in Beaver, Pa., today, said Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo.

The 11-year-old is still being charged as an adult, Bongivengo said.

A bail hearing is scheduled for March 2.

Jordan’s attorney, Dennis Elisco, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Wampum residents and business owners shared various emotions concerning the situation that shook the town of about 700 people.

“I have mixed feelings,” Dick Borst of Wampum said while sitting in the local convenience store Stop and Shop on Tuesday.

Trying an 11-year-old as an adult and placing him in an adult prison isn’t something Borst wholly agrees with, but, “I don’t think he should be walking the streets when he’s 18.”

“It’s tough. I’d hate to be the father,” Borst said.

Frank Ferrucci Sr. of Wampum was sitting with Borst and said he knew Jordan’s uncle.

Ferrucci said he didn’t think the shooting was accidental.

The boy was taught how to use a gun by his father and his uncle, and Jordan knew how to use one, he said. “I think it was cold-blooded.”

Placing all the blame on the child doesn’t seem fair, said Jim Helal Arafa, owner of Stop and Shop.

Arafa has kids of his own, and he said the 11-year-old should be held responsible, as well as all those who played a role in rearing the boy.

“Everybody who was in touch with the boy is guilty ... society is guilty,” he said.

“It’s the duty of parents and guardians to raise children appropriately and to be in tune with the needs of children,” Arafa said.

“Parents must start to hold themselves accountable and stop blaming everybody else,” he said. “They need to take responsibility and raise their children the right way.”

Blame set aside, the situation is tragic, “just a shame,” said the owner of Peggy’s Floral and Gift Shop in Wampum, who declined to give her name.

“[Christopher] lost his son, his girlfriend and his newborn,” she said. “His life is gone; it will never be the same.”

The owner of Peggy’s doesn’t agree with charging Jordan as an adult. She has a 14-year-old and said if a child of that age committed such a crime, it couldn’t have been “a clear decision.”

“The gun probably should have been under lock and key,” she said, but noted that it’s not out of the ordinary for kids in the area to have guns for hunting.

Whether for hunting purposes or not, guns shouldn’t be accessible to children of that age, said Brittany Sipe, 21, owner of Brittanys’ Beauty Bar in Wampum.

Sipe has a 14-year-old brother and said her parents would never let him have access to a gun and shells.

“I feel like he should be charged as an adult, but don’t think he should be in an adult jail,” she said of Jordan.

“It’s sad; he’ll never see Christmas or a birthday party again,” Sipe said.