Judge Rules Jordan Brown Delinquent
NEW CASTLE (KDKA) -- The judge in the juvenile court trial for the boy charged in the shooting death of his father's pregnant fiancée has issued a verdict the case.
KDKA's Harold Hayes reports from court that the judge has ruled 14-year-old Jordan Brown delinquent.
Prosecutor Anthony Krastek says that Brown could now remain in the juvenile system until he is 21-years-old, but that could be evaluated by the judge at regular intervals.
Following the hearing, extended family members of the victim tearfully left that floor where the proceeding was held.
Brown was just 11-years-old when he was charged in connection with the death of 26-year-old Kenzie Houk and her unborn child in Lawrence County.
After closing arguments wrapped up Thursday, Chris Brown - the defendant's father - offered his view of what went on behind closed doors during his son's juvenile trial.
"Well, you have an 11-year-old child who is wrongfully accused of a double homicide of the woman that he loved as his mother, taken from his bed at 3 in the morning, placed in the Lawrence County Jail for a week with adults, then later placed at a detention center for the last 37 months. All based on a theory," said Brown.
"A theory that he shot through a blanket, and John Bongevingo's words 'to muffle the sound,'" he added. "That blanket, that blanket never came into the prosecution's case, was never presented by the prosecution because the blanket [came] back clean."
That's how the Chris Brown described his view of the original prosecutor's theory and the current prosecutor's case. He did not offer an opinion of his own about who killed Houk.
The trial included about a dozen prosecution witnesses and three defense witnesses.
While the defendant's family maintained his innocence, the victim's family is sticking to their guns that investigators found who did it three years ago.
"I just hope justice is served, that's all," said Dorothy Burns, Houk's grandmother. "I want closure."
"His family says his childhood was taken away from him, nobody took anything from him," added Debbie Houk, the victim's mother. "He made that decision."
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