Jordan Brown: Trial Begins for 11-Year-Old Charged With Double Murder
The trial of 11-year-old Jordan Brown has begun with powerful testimony from the 7-year-old daughter of Brown's future stepmother, Kenzie Houk. The girl was only four when her mother was shot by Brown in Pennsylvania.
Kenzie Houk was eight months pregnant when Brown took a shotgun and shot her, execution style. The unborn child died of oxygen deprivation, and Brown was charged as an adult. The shooting took place three years ago, and the trial has opened with the testimony of now Kenzie's now 7-year-old daughter.
"My mommy's dead!" the little girl told a tree trimmer who was the first on the scene. He immediately called police, who discovered that Kenzie had been shot while she was asleep. It was decided that Brown would be tried and as an adult and faces the possibility of life without parole.
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The court has been closed and limited to members of Brown's family and Houk's family because of Jordan's age.
"He's an average 12-year-old," Jordan's father Chris told ABC. "To try to explain to a 12-year-old what the rest of your life means it's incomprehensible for him. He doesn't appreciate the magnitude of what he's facing."
Yet Houk's family believes Brown is getting the correct treatment, as the shooting took two lives, not one.
"I wake up in the middle of the night and think I'm going to have an anxiety attack knowing that I'm never seeing her again. It hurts," Houk's mother told ABC.
"She [Adalynn, Houk's daughter who found the body] has said to me, 'Grandma, I got up that morning, I went down to get mommy, I shook her and she wouldn't wake and she had blood on her back,'" Debbie Houk said.
Prosecutors have argued that Jordan used his shotgun to kill Houk because he was jealous of the unborn baby, yet his defense attorneys have said they will prove he is innocent. The case has divided members of the family that was once going to be a single unit.
Houk's family wore T-shirts reading "Support & Luv in memory of Kenzi & Baby Houk," while Brown's family and friends have said that they will fully support him throughout the trial.
"We're here to support Jordan, because we know he's innocent and we believe in him," family friend Dodi Frankovich told reporters outside the courtroom.
