Higher court to review decision to try 12-year-old as adult

Staff report

NEW CASTLE, PA.

Photo

Jordan Brown

A higher court will review a decision by a common pleas judge to try a 12-year-old boy charged with murder as an adult.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court will review the decision of Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Dominick Motto, who decided in March that Jordan Brown would be tried as an adult after his lawyers petitioned to have his case moved to juvenile court.

Jordan is charged in the Feb. 20, 2009, shotgun slaying of his father’s pregnant girlfriend. Her fetus, a boy near full-term, also died. Jordan is charged in the baby’s death as well.

Defense lawyers Dennis Elisco and David Acker went before Motto earlier this month to ask him for an amendment to his decision that would allow them to obtain a review by the higher court.

The Superior Court does not routinely hear appeals on decisions that aren’t final.

Judge Motto could change his mind about trying Jordan as an adult at any time, including during the trial.

But with Judge Motto’s amendment, the court will grant a review.

Defense lawyers argued that Judge Motto’s decision violated Jordan’s right against self-incrimination because it indicated the boy would have to admit his guilt if he were to prove amenability to rehabilitation.

That amenability is a key factor in whether his case could be moved to the juvenile system.

Judge Motto said in his order allowing the amendment, which was issued Wednesday, that the court did not find that Jordan must confess to be rehabilitated.

“Nevertheless, the court finds that there exists no Pennsylvania appellate authority that has ever addressed a defendant’s right against self-incrimination in the context of a proceeding to decertify a criminal case to juvenile court,” he wrote.

He amended the order to provide that it involves a “controlling question of law” as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion.

Jordan was 11 when he was charged with the murders at the family’s farmhouse near Wampum, Pa.