Lawyers Ask For New Trial For Teen In Pregnant Woman's 2009 Slaying
NEW CASTLE, Pa. (KDKA/AP) - A boy charged with fatally shooting his father's pregnant fiancée when he was just 11 is getting a hearing to determine if he deserves a new juvenile court trial.
Thursday's hearing wasn't public. It was held in Lawrence County because the state Supreme Court in December raised questions about the evidence used to convict Jordan Brown in juvenile court in the February 2009 shotgun killing of 26-year-old Kenzie Houk and her unborn son.
Brown's lawyers want a new juvenile court trial, while state prosecutors do not.
His attorneys contend there wasn't enough evidence to find him delinquent - the juvenile court equivalent of guilty.
Brown, who is now 17, remains in a juvenile facility and could remain there until he's 21 if he doesn't get a new trial.
Prosecutors say none of the evidence points to anybody else.
"The alternative argument we made is that if that's not the relief we're entitled to, that when you look at the weight of the evidence, that Jordan was denied a fair trial and that justice mandates that he get another trial, a retrial," said defense attorney Dennis Elisco.
Debbie Houk, mother of the victim, has been attending hearings on this case for six years. She had no comment Thursday after the latest hearing seeking to release Brown.
"Two courts have reviewed this entire record, the Superior Court very strongly agreed, with the support of the Supreme Court, reviewed this entire record and determined that as a matter of law that verdict was against the weight of the evidence," said defense attorney Steve Collafella.
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