Boy, 11, charged with killing father's fiancee, who was 8 months pregnant

Boy, 11, charged with killing father's fiancee, who was 8 months pregnant
BY Elizabeth Hays
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Updated Saturday, February 21st 2009, 11:02 PM

APJordan Brown was charged as an adult in the shooting death of Kenzie Marie Houk.
WTAE-TVKenzie Houk, 8 months pregnant, was shot to death in her bed. Her fiancee's 11-year-old son has been charged. Take our Poll
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Jordan Brown was consumed with jealousy over Kenzie Houk's unborn baby and allegedly shot her dead as she lay in bed in the family's Wampum, Pa., farmhouse Friday morning.

Houk was just two weeks from giving birth - and Jordan was charged as an adult with two counts of criminal homicide, including one for the fetus, state police said.

"It's tragic," said a relative who did not want to be named. "They were to be married. He was jealous."

The young suspect's father, identified by family members as Christopher Brown, was at work at the time of the shooting, relatives said.

Jordan was being held last night in the Lawrence County, Pa., jail, but was in a cell away from the adult inmates.

Police did not disclose a motive, but relatives said Jordan was upset about the pregnancy.

"They knew it was going to be a boy. She had just gone to the doctor," one said. "Chris was paying more attention to Kenzie and the new boy coming along, so he was upset."

Police were shocked by the suspect's age.

"The whole thing is beyond belief," said Lt. Steve Ignatz.

Cops said Jordan shot Houk once in the head sometime between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. with his youth-model 20-gauge shotgun - which he had used to win a turkey at a local shooting competition two weeks earlier.

He then left the house as if nothing had happened and caught the bus to school with Houk's 8-year-old daughter, police and relatives said.

The girl later told police what Jordan had done.

"She didn't actually eyewitness the shooting. She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang," said Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo.

Houk's body was discovered that morning by her younger daughter, who had just celebrated her fourth birthday the night before.

The girl ran out of the house, crying, and flagged down tree trimmers working near the house, about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Cops found the shotgun beneath Jordan's bed.

Jordan initially tried to throw cops off with a false lead, telling them of a suspicious black truck he saw on his family's property the morning of the slaying.

The boy's lawyer Dennis Elisco said he'll try to get the case moved to juvenile court.

Elisco said Christopher Brown was "in a state of actual shock and disbelief." The father said his son had no prior problems with Houk.

Neighbors were horrified someone so young could be so cold-blooded.

"It's just so sad that an 11-year-old could do that," said Sara Johnston, 53, a grandmother who lives nearby. "It's sick."

"My heart aches for them all - even for the boy who did it," said another neighbor who did not want to be identified. "What makes a child do something like at 11 years old?"

ehays@nydailynews.com



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