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Closing remarks expected to begin today in Jordan Brown case
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Jordan
Jordan Brown case
By Jeanne Starmack
New Castle, PA.
Testimony is finished in the murder case of 14-year-old Jordan Brown, who is charged with killing his father’s pregnant fiance.
Attorneys’ closing arguments were expected to begin this morning, said a family member who has been in the courtroom.
The trial is closed to the public and the media because Jordan, who was 11 when Kenzie Houk, 26, and her 9-month-old fetus were killed, is being tried as a juvenile.
The prosecution wrapped up its case Wednesday morning, and the defense, which did not have as many witnesses, finished in the afternoon, the family member said.
It was the second day of the trial in a case that captured worldwide attention.
Houk was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun as she lay in bed the morning of Feb. 20, 2009.
State police and prosecutors allege that Jordan shot her with his 20-gauge youth-model shotgun, then got on the school bus with her 7-year-old daughter, Janessa. Her 4-year-old daughter, Adalynn, was alone in the family’s rented farmhouse, in Wampum, Pa., when she found her dead mother. She alerted tree-trimmers who were working in the yard.
Debbie Houk, Kenzie’s mother, said it has been hard to listen to the testimony.
She also complained about incidents that happened outside the courtroom.
A scuffle between Debbie Houk’s son-in-law and someone wearing a T-shirt that declared support for Jordan happened shortly before noon outside the courthouse, she said, though she added she did not see the confrontation.
Her son-in-law was already aggravated shortly before the altercation because deputy sheriffs had followed him from the hallway outside the courtroom to county offices downstairs, where he wanted to take care of some personal business, she said.
“He asked, ‘Why are you following me,’” she said, adding that the Jordan supporter said he shouldn’t be allowed in the courthouse on crutches because they could become a weapon.
Her son-in-law has a fractured knee, she said.
Houk also said a deputy threatened to evict her from the courthouse after she asked him what was going on.
“He told me if I don’t be quiet, I would be kicked out of here,” she said.
“You go pick out a casket for your 26-year-old daughter and see how you feel.”
Houk also said she resented statements in newspapers and on television reports from a relative of Jordan’s who said he had lost his childhood.
“Nobody took it from him,” she said.
“He gave it up.”