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January 22 – February 4, 2011
Ruling on Jordan Brown status months away
Beaver County Times
By Eric Poole
January 26, 2011
http://www.timesonline.com/bct_news/news_details/article/1373/2011/january/25/ruling-on-jordanbrown-status-could-be-months-away.html
PITTSBURGH — After a hearing Tuesday in state Superior Court, an attorney for teenage murder
suspect Jordan Brown said it could be months before the court issues a decision on a petition to
have Brown tried as a juvenile.
New Castle attorney David Acker said both sides mostly reiterated the arguments made in court
briefs filed last year. Acker said Lourdes Rosado of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center
made arguments before the court Tuesday.
Brown, 13, is accused of double homicide in the Feb. 20, 2009, murder of Kenzie Houk, of New
Beaver. Houk — who was engaged to marry Brown’s father, Christopher — was eight months
pregnant with Christopher Brown’s child. The baby also died.
At the time of Houk’s murder, Brown was 11. He is being tried as an adult, which means he could
face life in prison without parole if convicted. In December of 2009, defense attorneys Dennis
Elisco and Acker, petitioned Lawrence County Judge Dominick Motto to move the case to juvenile
court.
Motto denied the request last year after Acker and Elisco argued that Brown is amenable to
rehabilitation. Senior Deputy Attorney General Anthony Krastek said Brown’s unwillingness to
admit culpability in the case indicates that he is a poor candidate to be rehabilitated and that he
would be a high risk to reoffend.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Christopher Carusone, who typically handles appellate court cases
for the attorney general’s office, made arguments for the prosecution.
Initially, former Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo prosecuted the case, but
when he left office at the end of 2009, the state attorney general’s office took over the case
because District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa provided legal advice to Christopher Brown prior to
being elected.
Most of Tuesday’s arguments were similar to those made previously before Motto and in the briefs
both sides previously submitted to Superior Court, Acker said.
He maintained that the prosecution’s standard of having to admit committing the murder to be
considered a strong candidate for rehabilitation is a constitutional violation of Jordan Brown’s right
to avoid self-incrimination.
“It is our opinion that you cannot take this as a negative factor,” Acker said.
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