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First witnesses testify at Pa. boy's murder trial
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Jordan
By Jeanne Starmack
New Castle, PA.
More than three years after the shotgun death of a pregnant woman, the suspect in her slaying is on trial in Lawrence County, Pa.
Jordan Brown, 14, went before Common Pleas Court Judge John Hodge on Tuesday morning. The trial is expected to last several days.
Jordan was 11 when he became the suspect in a murder that got worldwide attention.
Kenzie Houk, 26, Jordan’s father’s fiance, was lying on her side in her bed around 8:30 a.m. Feb. 20, 2009, at the couple’s rented farmhouse near Wampum, Pa. She was killed with a shotgun blast to the back of her head.
Her 9-month-old fetus, a boy she was going to name Christopher, did not survive. The fetus died from lack of oxygen.
Shortly after the shooting, Jordan caught the school bus with Houk’s oldest daughter Janessa, 7. Her youngest daughter, Adalynn, 4, was left alone in the house and discovered her dead mother. Adalynn alerted tree-trimmers who were working in the yard. They called police.
State police who responded found what they believe to be the murder weapon, a youth-model 20-gauge shotgun, in Jordan’s room.
Janessa also told investigators she heard a loud bang before she got on the school bus with Jordan.
Jordan’s father, Chris Brown, was at work when Houk was shot.
Jordan is being tried as a juvenile, so this week’s trial is closed to the public. Three family members from Jordan’s side and three from Houk’s side are allowed in the courtroom, explained Jordan’s great-aunt, Cynthia Wiseman, who is allowed in with Chris Brown and Jordan’s grandmother.
Inside the courtroom for Houk are her mother, Debbie, her father, Jack, and her sister. Testifying during the morning, said Jack Houk, was one of the tree-trimmers. He said that the testimony is not easy to hear.
“It’s pretty horrible,” he said.
Wiseman also said it hasn’t been easy to listen to what happened to Houk, who she believes Jordan loved. She said she does not believe the evidence points to Jordan.
“He’s lost his childhood, he’s maintained his innocence,” she said. “They need to find the real killer.”
Tesifying during the afternoon, Wiseman said, were a pathologist, four state troopers and the school bus driver.
Friends and family who could not be in the courtroom waited in the hall.
Dodi Frankovich, a longtime friend of Chris Brown’s, said she and other supporters know Jordan’s innocent. “We believe in him,” she said. “He’s a good kid — he’s always been a good kid.”
Brenda Mooney was there with other supporters of the Houk family.
“They live with this every day, not having their daughter,” Mooney said.
She said the family keeps Houk’s daughters busy “to keep their minds occupied.”
Jordan was first charged as an adult with first-degree criminal homicide and first-degree criminal homicide of an unborn child. Pennsylvania law requires anyone over age 10 who is charged with first-degree murder to go through the adult system first.
He spent a short time in the county jail, then went to a juvenile center in Beaver County. He was eventually sent to the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Center in Erie, where he’s still lodged.
Jordan’s lawyers petitioned to have his case moved to the juvenile court. But in March 2010, county President Judge Dominick Motto ruled he would be tried as an adult.
Jordan’s lawyers appealed that ruling to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. The court reviewed the decision and ordered Judge Motto to have another hearing.
The higher court decided Jordan’s constitutional right against self-incrimination was violated in the first hearing. Judge Motto reconsidered testimony from the March hearing and ruled in August 2011 that Jordan would be tried as a juvenile.