Jordan Brown Murder case goes to high court

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court must decide if a Pennsylvania teen should get a new trial in the death of his father’s pregnant fiancee, who was fatally shot with a youth-model shotgun when he was 11.

Jordan Brown, now 16, has been in juvenile detention since being charged in the 2009 shooting deaths of Kenzie Houk and her unborn son in a case that made headlines because of both its chilling nature and the laws governing juvenile homicide suspects.

An appeals court threw out the juvenile-court verdict, calling it “plainly contrary to the evidence,” and sent the case back to a Lawrence County judge. Prosecutors appealed, leading to the high court arguments Wednesday.

Defense lawyer Dennis Elisco called the murder investigation faulty. He argued that investigators never searched the perimeter of the snowy yard for footprints, or explored what might have happened after Brown went to school that day.

There was a 45-minute gap between the time when the boy boarded a school bus and tree-trimmers discovered the crime scene.

“I guess something could have happened, but we don’t have any evidence of it,” Chief Deputy Attorney General James Barker told the justices.

Houk was shot in the back of the head with the boy’s youth-model shotgun. A shell case was found on the long driveway between the house and the road, where the school bus picked the boy up.