Court exonerates Jordan Brown, found delinquent of murdering his father's fiancee at age 11

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Court exonerates Jordan Brown, found delinquent of murdering his father's fiancee at age 11

JONATHAN D. SILVER
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
[e-mail]
JUL 18, 2018 1:08 PM

Jordan Brown has been exonerated. ... And Jack Houk is furious about it. ... Charged in 2009 as an 11-year-old for the shotgun murder in Lawrence County of his father’s fiancee and her unborn child, adjudicated delinquent three years later of first-degree murder and homicide, Mr. Brown is now, for all intents and purposes, an innocent man.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Wednesday reversed a lower court’s opinion upholding the juvenile court equivalent of a conviction and “discharged” Mr. Brown, 20. ... The court determined that evidence in the case pointing to Mr. Brown could just as easily have implicated an unknown assailant and, as a result, was insufficient to find him culpable beyond a reasonable doubt.

That, according to one of his attorneys, means that he has been cleared of killing Kenzie Marie Houk, who was 26 and nine months pregnant when she was shot in the back of her neck as she slept in the farmhouse near New Castle that she shared with Mr. Brown, his father, and her two young daughters. ... “As far as Jordan Brown is concerned, the case is over,” lawyer Stephen Colfafella said Wednesday. “He’s been cleared.”

But in the opinion of Kenzie Houk's father, Mr. Brown remains the culprit.
....

Jonathan D. Silver: [e-mail], 412-263-1962 or on Twitter @jsilverpg.