Officials say it has been determined that a physical altercation occurred between the victim and Dequan Blount, who . I also thought it was hilarious how uncomfortable the big bald cop in the middle was. Throughout Jordan Browns stay in detention in Erie, his father continued to ask him whether he'd killed Houk. Please consult your doctor before taking any action. In fact, the prosecutions forensics expert had testified that these particles can be transferred. I was standing right at the edge of the doorway, and I remember the coroner saying, as he started to touch the body, We have a problem, Martin said. I thought, you know, it was just some guy there doing work or something. [11] After those newspapers decided not to pursue their appeal further, Judge Hodge was directed by another panel of the Superior Court to move swiftly to hold an adjudication hearing. That decision, he told 20/20, is something that's haunted me.. Season Two 21st June 2004, Jim Donnelly goes to work as usual at the Glenbrook Steel Mill, places his lunch on the bench, gets changed into his work clothes - and is never seen again. In another allegation, the lawsuit provides a transcript of an interview with a former girlfriend of Browns father, a woman who said at least twice that she was absolutely not afraid of Jordan Brown. And I was in there. TACOMA, Wash. - A memorial stands outside the doors of World of Weed in Tacoma honoring the life of an employee killed during an armed robbery that happened this past weekend. Police say Brown walked into his father's bedroom, shot his future stepmom with a hunting rifle and then boarded a bus for elementary school. I did not know what the sound was, said Adalynn, who was 4 years old at the time and is now 13. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 2018 ruled prosecutors did not provide enough evidence to support a conviction and Brown was exonerated at the age of 20. Retired Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Bobby McGraw said he is still confident that Jordan Brown committed the murders. ???? A young Jordan Brown is seen here in this undated family photo. I just want to graduate college, you know, get a job in my major and, I dont know, just be successful, Jordan Brown said. Its difficult to charge an 11-year-old with homicide. On June 13, 2016, more than seven years after his arrest, Jordan Brown was released from juvenile custody, two months before his 19th birthday. 6 New Details About The Woman Who May Have Falsely Accused Emmett Till. The decertification ruling transferred Brown's case from adult court to Lawrence County's family court division regularly presided over by Judge Hodge, who handled the subsequent juvenile adjudication and dispositional hearings. 2023 Cox Media Group. This is my first comment on Reddit. [18], Brown is currently a college junior studying computer science. She stood by her confession and . That mug shot of Jordan Brown that sort of became an icon of the story spread across the world, said Pittsburgh-based ABC affiliate WTAE reporter Bob Mayo. They never said he wasnt guilty. Under Pennsylvania law, an adjudicated juvenile offender cannot be held in custody past his 21st birthday. Wright says more than that, the evidence investigators gave to prosecutors was improperly gathered, mischaracterized or fabricated to support a theory that the then 11-year-old had committed the murder something he would have had to do and clean up without missing anything in the space of about 120 seconds. A state police spokesman, Ryan Tarkowski, declined to comment on pending litigation. However, Jordan said he remembered seeing a black truck near the garage. In July 2018, the court sided with Jordan Brown, writing that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had failed to prove Jordan Brown guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. [4] A petition signed by nearly 4,000 people protested what it termed as denial of Brown's fifth and sixth amendment rights. It just seems like at some point during the investigation he would've broken if he'd been guilty. A certiorari request for review was made to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which granted an appeal to consider Brown's claims that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to sustain the adjudication of the juvenile court, and that its adjudication was against the weight of the evidence. This case was investigated by some of the finest police officers in this country, plain and simple. Accidents happen, buddy. Elisco disclosed to WPXI that Brown is attending college at an undisclosed location under another name. I guess you could speculate that. He shot his father's fiancee in the back of her head, killing her and her unborn child. In a later interview, after investigators told her grandparents they believed Brown killed Houk, the girl said she saw him with guns that morning and heard a bang. Emily's Death: Died September 18, 1979. Houk's 4-year-old daughter alerted nearby tree cutters roughly 45 minutes after Jordan Brown and Houk's 7-year-old daughter got on a school bus. Brown, who initially was charged as an . Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, https://people.com/crime/jordan-brown-case-murder-kenzie-houk-interview-after-prison/. The Pennsylvania Superior Court rejected an appeal by three area newspapers (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and New Castle News) to overturn Hodge's ruling and open the hearing to the public. Even with the relationship they had, Adam was still in love with Kenzie. Investigators interviewed Houks then 7-year-old daughter, only recording the fourth interview. She wanted financial support payments for Adalynn but he had refused, saying he first wanted proof that the child was his. Jordan, who had a bedroom upstairs, had already moved his clothes into that downstairs bedroom. Last year, Jordan Brown, now 12, was charged with murdering Kenzie Houk, his father's eight-and-a-half month pregnant fiancee while she was asleep. ", I just read about this case on people.com. Early in the investigation, a number of people including Chris Brown told police they should look into another person -- Houks ex-boyfriend of six years, Adam Harvey. But it would take another three and a half years before his appeal was heard by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. I'm a little on the fence concerning his guilt, but one thing I keep thinking about is this child, 11 years old at the time and now 21, has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence all of these years. But Houks family remains convinced that Jordan is guilty, and that he should receive the maximum punishment and be tried as an adult. They literally said because he cried in the interview he was still in love with her & because the car had snow on it? The arrest of an 11-year-old for murder quickly gained wide media attention, and suddenly Wampum, Pennsylvania, a town with a population of roughly 600 people, had millions of eyes on it. Pennsylvania State Police found a spent shotgun shell near the path Brown walked with Houk's older daughter to get to their school bus. It's three feet long., Inside the Browns' farmhouse, police found a collection of handguns, rifles and several rounds of ammunition. I didn't think anything of it. Kenzie Houk and her family had a protective order against Harvey after she claimed he had left messages threatening to kill her and her family. Ill be honest with you, I suffer from PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] over this, Chris Brown continued. It also mentions that he had a significant motive. I have never looked back that we arrested the wrong person, in my opinion. (This account of the case is pulled from reports by ABC News, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Post-Gazette and available court documents.). Shes bawling and crying, Mr. Houk said. Police said what really turned the case for them were additional interviews they conducted with Jenessa and Jordan the night of the murders. A judge finding a juvenile delinquent is effectively a guilty verdict. WAMPUM, Pa. -- Jordan Brown was 11 years old when he was arrested and initially charged as an adult for the murder of his pregnant, soon-to-be stepmother. He was almost 21 when Pennsylvania's highest court said. Alan's stepmother, Rosalind L. Brown, and her brother, Montel Pettiford, were eventually convicted of his murder. This is precisely what would have had to have happened, Colafella added. 5 Theories Explain HowCayleeAnthony Really Died. WAMPUM, Pa. A lawsuit has been filed against four former troopers and a former Pennsylvania State Police commissioner for wrongfully convicting Jordan Brown, who was exonerated in the 2009. More than two years after Jordan Brown was charged, a judge ruled that his case would be moved from adult to juvenile court, where instead of facing life in prison he would get out far earlier. And I had no idea where we were going. The blended family seemed to be bonding. But still, that side of it, that suffering from the loss and not having any answers, knowing he was falsely accused and the route the prosecutor and investigators took on this, the inadequate investigation. I remember when this all happened and just read up on everything that has happened since (I had an idea that he was out of prison, but had NO idea that his conviction was overturned based on insufficient evidence). The coroner determined Lily had died at least two hours before her stepmother . Brown said this week from his western Pennsylvania home that he is studying computer science at a college in Ohio, but taking criminal justice classes with the idea that he might go to law school and pursue a career as a civil rights attorney. Trooper McGraw believed Jordan threw the shell to the ground as he was walking to the bus the morning of the murders. But because few people seem to agree with him, he said, Krause decided to speak out Wednesday on behalf of Jordan Anthony Brown, 11, who is charged with two counts of murder in the shooting death of his father's pregnant fiancee last week in New Galilee. Nearly two years after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court cleared him, Mr. Brown is suing an ex-state police commissioner and former troopers. Houk,. Emma Tustin, 32, was unanimously convicted at Coventry Crown Court on Thursday of murdering Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. According to the lawsuit, former troopers Janice Wilson, Jeffrey Martin, Robert McGraw and Troy Steinhauser, as well as former commissioner Frank Pawlowski, fabricated evidence against Brown. It's saying that I have a charge in front of me in juvenile court, and I am finding that you are responsible for that crime, ABC News Chief Legal Analyst Dan Abrams said. I didn't know where I was at, what was going on or anything, he said. Jordan said he and Houk had a strong relationship, and he even called her Mom., She was really nice. Justices said in their 2018 decision that prosecutors presented largely circumstantial and insufficient evidence, saying among other things in trial testimony that a 20-gauge shotgun in Browns bedroom was the murder weapon actually supported an equally reasonable conclusion that it was not used in the murder. Lawrence County Judge John Hodge found the now-14-year-old Jordan Brown delinquent, the juvenile . 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