Post by Melissa on Feb 1, 2011 18:49:36 GMT -5
www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-23-11yrold-murderer-charged_N.htm
Boy held in Pa. killing to go to juvenile facility
Updated 2/25/2009 12:34 PM | Comments 8 | Recommend
NEW CASTLE, Pa (AP) — An 11-year-old boy charged with killing his father's pregnant fiancee will be moved from a county jail to a juvenile facility under a court order issued Tuesday.
A judge agreed that it is in Jordan Brown's best interest to be housed in the Allencrest Juvenile Detention Center northwest of Pittsburgh. Brown remains charged as an adult in the shooting death of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, though his attorney said he will ask to have the case moved to a juvenile court.
"What we have learned is ... that under Pennsylvania law he can continue to be ... prosecuted as an adult and be housed in a secure juvenile detention center," defense attorney Dennis Elisco said.
Brown is accused of shooting Houk in the head Friday, killing her and her unborn baby boy.
He's in a cell isolated from the adult inmates in Lawrence County Jail. Elisco said his client will be moved to the juvenile center Wednesday morning.
A viewing and funeral for Houk and her baby boy, who was named Christopher after his father, were held Tuesday evening.
Hundreds of friends and family stood for hours in freezing temperatures to pay their respects to Houk at the viewing. They walked quietly past her body, which was dressed in a red sweater. Near her feet were two blue baby booties for the baby she was to deliver in just a few weeks and beside her was a red pillow with the words "Special Mom" embroidered in white.
Houk's immediate family was allowed to see the baby's body. Her uncle Willard Houk called it "a hard thing" knowing Houk was so close to giving birth.
At the funeral service, friends and family remembered Houk as a loving, joyful, stubborn woman who could never be persuaded to do something she was opposed to. One of her best friends, the Rev. Jamie Holmes, recalled a time when he and Houk went to a Pittsburgh Steelers game together and Hines Ward wanted to talk to her — and she refused.
"I was so angry," he said laughing at the memory.
Jordan Brown and his father lived with Houk and her two small daughters in a farmhouse in the rural western Pennsylvania town of Wampum.
Authorities believe Friday's killing was premeditated. They say Brown went downstairs with two guns but returned upstairs after Houk's 7-year-old daughter saw him; they believe he then hid a gun in a blanket and went back downstairs to Houk's bedroom and shot her in the back of the head.
Later, the 7-year-old girl told police she saw the boy drop something on the ground from his pocket before they got on the school bus. Police said they found a spent shotgun shell in the same spot.
Earlier Tuesday, Houk's mother said the boy had been threatening her daughter for at least two months and often gave her a hard time, especially when his father wasn't around.
"It's been at least two months that he's made the threats," Debbie Houk said, adding that Jordan "just bucked her (Kenzie) a lot when his dad wasn't around."
"Chris was good about it. He tried. He told him, 'Don't you ever disrespect her,'" Debbie Houk added.
Debbie Houk said Jordan, a hunter, knew a lot about guns and was a good shot. On Valentine's Day, he beat out many older and more experienced hunters at a turkey shoot.
"I'll never cook that turkey. It's the same gun that killed my daughter," she said. "So he knew what a gun did. He knew the dangers of a gun."
Boy held in Pa. killing to go to juvenile facility
Updated 2/25/2009 12:34 PM | Comments 8 | Recommend
NEW CASTLE, Pa (AP) — An 11-year-old boy charged with killing his father's pregnant fiancee will be moved from a county jail to a juvenile facility under a court order issued Tuesday.
A judge agreed that it is in Jordan Brown's best interest to be housed in the Allencrest Juvenile Detention Center northwest of Pittsburgh. Brown remains charged as an adult in the shooting death of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, though his attorney said he will ask to have the case moved to a juvenile court.
"What we have learned is ... that under Pennsylvania law he can continue to be ... prosecuted as an adult and be housed in a secure juvenile detention center," defense attorney Dennis Elisco said.
Brown is accused of shooting Houk in the head Friday, killing her and her unborn baby boy.
He's in a cell isolated from the adult inmates in Lawrence County Jail. Elisco said his client will be moved to the juvenile center Wednesday morning.
A viewing and funeral for Houk and her baby boy, who was named Christopher after his father, were held Tuesday evening.
Hundreds of friends and family stood for hours in freezing temperatures to pay their respects to Houk at the viewing. They walked quietly past her body, which was dressed in a red sweater. Near her feet were two blue baby booties for the baby she was to deliver in just a few weeks and beside her was a red pillow with the words "Special Mom" embroidered in white.
Houk's immediate family was allowed to see the baby's body. Her uncle Willard Houk called it "a hard thing" knowing Houk was so close to giving birth.
At the funeral service, friends and family remembered Houk as a loving, joyful, stubborn woman who could never be persuaded to do something she was opposed to. One of her best friends, the Rev. Jamie Holmes, recalled a time when he and Houk went to a Pittsburgh Steelers game together and Hines Ward wanted to talk to her — and she refused.
"I was so angry," he said laughing at the memory.
Jordan Brown and his father lived with Houk and her two small daughters in a farmhouse in the rural western Pennsylvania town of Wampum.
Authorities believe Friday's killing was premeditated. They say Brown went downstairs with two guns but returned upstairs after Houk's 7-year-old daughter saw him; they believe he then hid a gun in a blanket and went back downstairs to Houk's bedroom and shot her in the back of the head.
Later, the 7-year-old girl told police she saw the boy drop something on the ground from his pocket before they got on the school bus. Police said they found a spent shotgun shell in the same spot.
Earlier Tuesday, Houk's mother said the boy had been threatening her daughter for at least two months and often gave her a hard time, especially when his father wasn't around.
"It's been at least two months that he's made the threats," Debbie Houk said, adding that Jordan "just bucked her (Kenzie) a lot when his dad wasn't around."
"Chris was good about it. He tried. He told him, 'Don't you ever disrespect her,'" Debbie Houk added.
Debbie Houk said Jordan, a hunter, knew a lot about guns and was a good shot. On Valentine's Day, he beat out many older and more experienced hunters at a turkey shoot.
"I'll never cook that turkey. It's the same gun that killed my daughter," she said. "So he knew what a gun did. He knew the dangers of a gun."