Legal Research

Pennsylvania Murder Suspect, 11, Going to Detention Center

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, February 25, 2009.

"An 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy accused of killing his father's pregnant girlfriend likely will be moved from a jail to a juvenile detention center today, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A judge approved the move yesterday for Jordan Brown, a fifth-grade student who was arrested over the weekend and charged with two counts of homicide, including the killing of an unborn child. Prosecutor John Bongivengo said. 'I know he's considered an adult under the law. But he is an 11- year-old.' " 

"On Friday, the body of Kenzie Marie Houk was found at a farmhouse she shared with Jordan, his father and her two daughters. She had been shot in the back of the head, and investigators discovered the suspected murder weapon -- a 20-gauge shotgun -- in Jordan's bedroom. State law requires that a juvenile accused of homicide be charged as an adult. Since Saturday, Jordan has been housed in a 10-foot-by-10-foot jail cell, segregated from about 300 adult inmates. 'He's upset. He's crying. He doesn't want to be there,' said Dennis Elisco, the boy's defense attorney. Pennsylvania law doesn't allow a murder suspect to be released on bail, but Jordan, as a minor, doesn't face the death penalty, and he probably wouldn't spend his life in prison even if convicted, Elisco argued."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on February 25, 2009 (boomark / email).