Attorneys for Jordan A Brown, held in double murder ask dismissal

Right: Kenzie Houk with her two motherless daughters.

Defense claims evidence improperly gathered, yadda yadda

Thursday, August 27, 2009
By Sadie Gurman
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Attorneys for Jordan A Brown urged a judge to dismiss the case yesterday, days before the boy turns 12.

Jordan Brown will spend his birthday Sunday at the Edmund L. Thomas Adolescent Detention Center in Erie...

Jordan, who prosecutors say fatally shot Kenzie Houk, 26, at close range in the back of her head, with a 20-gauge shotgun as she lay in bed, is charged as an adult. An adolescent psychologist, Kirk Heilbrun, evaluated Jordan earlier this month and deemed him "amenable to juvenile rehabilitation," Mr. Elisco said.

Dr. Heilbrun, head of the psychology department at Drexel University, couldn't be reached for comment last night...

[Attorneys] Dennis Elisco and David Acker told Lawrence County President Judge Dominick Motto yesterday that prosecutors have not offered enough evidence to charge the boy.

Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo told Judge Motto he has presented "more than probable cause for this case to go forward and pretty close to enough to sustain a conviction. Everything yells that the defendant is responsible," he said.

The boy's relatives as well as Ms. Houk's...declined to talk to reporters after the hour-long hearing, saying their attorneys had advised them not to.

Absent from the hearing was Jordan, a short, pudgy boy who Mr. Elisco said has grown taller and heavier while at the detention center.

...Ms. Houk was pregnant with a full-term boy, Jordan's half-brother, whom she planned to name Christopher after his father. Jordan is also charged with killing the unborn child...

Judge Motto did not set another hearing date. Mr. Elisco said he hopes to file a motion to decertify the case to juvenile court next week.

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