US: Boy, 11, kills pregnant woman

US: Boy, 11, kills pregnant woman

WAMPUM - AN 11-YEAR-OLD boy has been charged in the shotgun death of his father's pregnant girlfriend, who was found slain in a bedroom of her western Pennsylvania farmhouse, authorities said on Saturday.

Jordan Brown was charged as an adult in the shooting death of Kenzie Marie Houk, who was 8 months pregnant, Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo said at a news conference.

Brown, the son of Ms Houk's live-in boyfriend, was charged with criminal homicide and criminal homicide of an unborn child, Mr Bongivengo said.

Police said Ms Houk's 4-year-old daughter found her mother's body on Friday morning in a bedroom of their home in a wooded area in the community of Wampum. Ms Houk's other daughter, who is 7 years old, later told police that Brown killed her mother, Mr Bongivengo said.

Police said the boy had been arraigned in district court and placed in the county jail.

The home was cordoned off with yellow police tape and a Pennsylvania State Police vehicle was parked out front early Saturday afternoon. Next to the house was farm equipment and a barn filled with hay.

A neighbour, Cameron Tucker, said Ms Houk was engaged and had been renting the house for no more than a year. Mr Tucker said he had never met Ms Houk's fiance, but that both of them had children.

'She was very protective of her kids,' he said, adding that she seemed very excited about her pregnancy.

A preliminary hearing is set for Thursday.

The rural community is about 56km north-west of Pittsburgh. -- AP

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_341571.html

Murder suspect, 11, too small for jail

Jail officials can't even find clothes to fit the 1.42m-tall boy

February 25, 2009

A JAIL warden said he could not accommodate an 11-year-old boy who was accused of killing his father's pregnant girlfriend in the adult lockups.

Lawrence County Warden Charles Adamo said his 300-inmate jail cannot offer proper long-term care for Jordan Brown, of Wampum, who was charged last Saturday with using his own 20-gauge shotgun to kill 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk.

Ms Houk was eight months pregnant with the child of Brown's father and also had two daughters, ages four and seven.

Her fetus died of lack of oxygen minutes after she was slain in bed on last Friday.

Police said the fifth-grader then put his youth model shotgun back in his room before boarding the bus - with Ms Houk's oldest daughter - and heading to school like he did most other mornings in this rural western Pennsylvania community.

State troopers picked him up at school after tree trimmers called 911 when Ms Houk's youngest daughter told them she thought her mother was dead.

The boy has been held in a jail about 72km north-west of Pittsburgh since early last Saturday, Mr Adamo said.

Brown faces a preliminary hearing on Thursday to determine if he will stand trial. He was charged as an adult because Pennsylvania law allows prosecutors to charge children as young as 10 with criminal homicide.

But Brown's lawyer, Mr Dennis Elisco, said he filed motions yesterday asking a judge to move the case to juvenile court and to let the boy's father post bail so the boy can be freed.

He said: 'I want him to be occupied and busy and back, essentially, in school.'

Mr Adamo said the boy was being held in one of four 3-by-2.4-m cells in the jail's booking area, where officials check on him every 15 minutes.

The boy cannot receive visitors - except for his attorney - because doing so would require him to mingle with adult inmates. Even something as simple as letting the boy shower would require locking down a cellblock, most of which hold up to 63 inmates, said Mr Adamo.

Mr Elisco added that jail officials couldn't even find clothes to fit the 1.42m-tall boy.

He said: 'They put a shirt on him; he's swimming in it, and his pants are cuffed up about 10 times.'

Pennsylvania State Police found Ms Houk's body in the rented farmhouse after her four-year-old daughter told tree cutters on the property she thought her mother was dead.

A police spokesman said: 'She didn't actually eyewitness the shooting. She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang.'

He said the gun was found in a 'location we believe to be in the defendant's bedroom'.

The shotgun used is designed for children and has a shorter arm, and such weapons do not have to be registered, he added.

Ms Houk's father, Mr Jack Houk, 57, said the boy and his father used to practice shooting behind their farmhouse, and the two enjoyed going hunting together.

What's his motive?
He added: 'An 11-year-old kid...what would give him the motive to shoot someone?

'Maybe he was just jealous of my daughter and the baby and thought he would be overpowered.'

Psychologist Patricia Papernow said tensions from combining families, such as what Brown's father and Ms Houk were doing, 'looks awful from the outside and sort of unspeakable, but these are the kinds of feelings that are pretty normal in a new stepfamily.

'You just hope there's not a loaded gun around.'

But Brown's lawyer dismissed the claims, saying 'there's no animosity'.

He plans to get the boy released on bail and for the case to be moved to juvenile court.

Mr Elisco also said the boy has not confessed to the shooting, and said he is waiting to see physical evidence that ties his young client to the killing.

'I don't think he knows what's going on,' he said. 'I walked out of there thinking he was innocent. I believe Jordan did not do this.'

Source: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,193877,00.html?