Friday hearing to determine where 12-year-old will be tried

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A hearing Friday will determine whether Jordan Brown, 12, accused in the shotgun slaying of his father’s pregnant girlfriend, should stand trial as an adult or a juvenile.

The hearing will be at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom No. 1 at the Lawrence County Government Center. President Judge Dominick Motto of Lawrence County Common Pleas Court is set to hear arguments about why Brown’s case, accused of killing Kenzie Houk, 26, at the family’s rented farmhouse near Wampum, Pa., on Feb. 20, 2009, should be transferred to juvenile court.

Brown’s lawyers will have to show the boy is amenable to rehabilitation before the judge will do that.

Brown has spent most of his incarceration since the shooting at a juvenile center in Erie, Pa., and has undergone psychological evaluation that shows he can be rehabilitated, his lawyers say.

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