This is a true crime list about 10 children who committed murders.
DISCLAIMER AND WARNING: Some of the contents are graphic and very disturbing, especially because many of the victims were children themselves. Reader discretion is advised.
11/24/20...
Jordan Brown's case reawakened the controversial issue of children being prosecuted as adults.
In the morning of February 20, 2009, Kenzie Marie Houk, 26 years old and eight months pregnant, was found dead in her bed by the youngest of her two daughters, Adalynne, 4 years old. She was shot in the back of the head while she was sleeping. She died from the wound, and the baby, a boy who she had planned to name Christopher Allen, died from a lack of oxygen.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Kenzie had recently moved to a farmhouse in Wampum, Pennsylvania, with her daughters, her fiancé Christopher Brown and his 11-year-old son Jordan, who became the only suspect for her murder.
Police learned that Christopher left for work around 7 am, Kenzie was shot around 8 am and her body was found at 9.30 am. They interviewed Jordan and Kenzie's eldest daughter Jenessa, 7 years old, who were at home at the time of the murder. The boy told the investigators there was a black truck on the property that morning, sending them to follow a false lead for about five hours. His conflicting descriptions of the truck pushed them to reinterview Jenessa, who told them that on that morning Jordan had a shotgun covered in a blanket and that she heard a "big boom" before leaving for school with him. Afterwards, she saw him tossing something in the snow next to their driveway on their way to the school bus stop.
Sure enough, police found a youth-model 20-gauge shotgun, which Christopher had given to Jordan as a Christmas gift, outside the boy's bedroom, along with a blue blanket with a hole the size of a quarter and burn marks. Also, a shotgun shell was found near the path that Jenessa had described.
Based on her testimony and on the findings that validated it, police arrested Jordan Brown and, because of his age, kept him in isolation in the Lawrence County Jail.
The District Attorney John Bonivengo decided to prosecute Jordan as an adult, since the crime, in his opinion, was premeditated. He believed that the boy was jealous of Kenzie and having trouble adjusting to their blended family when she and her daughters moved in with him and his father. Kenzie's family accused Jordan of threating her and the girls at least two months before the killing. Her sister, Jennifer Kraner, stated: "We tried to love him. But there was some sort of issue". He also was a good shot, and won a turkey shoot less than two weeks earlier, beating out several adults. Jordan and his family refused to acknowledge his guilt.
In Pennsylvania, anyone 10 or older charged with homicide automatically starts in adult court. Defense attorneys can petition to move such cases to juvenile court, which Jordan's attorney Dennis Elisco did. Since the Lawrence County judge Dominick Motto found no evidence connecting anyone else to the killings, he initially rejected the petition. But after Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that Judge Motto violated Jordan's Fifth Amendment, he reversed his earlier decision and, in August 2011, ruled that the boy should be tried as a juvenile.
Lawrence County family court judge John Hodge issued his ruling on April 13, 2012, that Jordan was responsible for first-degree murder, adjudicated him to be delinquent (the juvenile court equivalent of a guilty verdict) and ordered him to a juvenile facility.
His attorney said that Jordan is doing well, he completed all programs and met all juvenile rehabilitation goals and is in no further need of detention. Indeed, he was released from juvenile custody on June 2016. He is now free, even if technically on juvenile probation until he turns 21.
____
UPDATE 21/10/2020
On July 2018 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Jordan's conviction because the evidence against him was insufficient, discharging him. He also cannot be retried for the crime, because of the Double Jeopardy rule. Although he is suffering from PTSD, Jordan (23) is currently studying computer science in college and trying to turn his life around. Another suspect to Kenzie Marie Houk's murder is being investigated: Adam Harvey, Kenzie's ex boyfriend.
