Boy 12 to be the youngest in US charged as an adult with murder

[Elmore Furth]

I know he's baby-faced but people who murder others in their sleep spook me.

The killing of a young pregnant mother, allegedly by the 11-year-old boy who was about to become her stepson, has created a bitter feud between two families that were about to be happily joined through marriage.

Chris Brown believes son, now 12 years old, is innocent of step-mom's murder.Last year, Jordan Brown, now 12, was charged with murdering Kenzie Houk, his father's eight-and-a-half month pregnant fiancee while she was asleep. Police say Brown walked into his father's bedroom, shot his future stepmom with a hunting rifle and then boarded a bus for elementary school.

A Pennsylvania judge ruled last month that the boy will be tried as an adult. If convicted, he could become the youngest person in U.S. history to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

"He's an average 12-year-old," said Jordan's father Chris Brown. "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."

Jordan Brown Murder Case Takes Emotional Toll

[MadMaddie]

1. His father says he's an average 12 year old? Average 12

year olds don't shoot sleeping pregnant women in their sleep.

This child should be sent to a mental facility perhaps for the rest of his life, the prison system is not where he belongs.

[pnwmom]

9. His father's convinced he didn't do it. And there hasn't been a trial yet. n/t

[Orrex]

2. A very sad story

Quite a shake-up locally.

[JI7]

3. the Father calls him "average" ? no , the boy is not an average 12 year old

seems like the father might have some blame in what happened. how many signs were there where he blew it off as "he is just an average......" .

[pnwmom]

8. How do you know? There hasn't been a trial yet. n/t

[NanceGreggs]

12. Why waste time and money on a trial ...

We all KNOW that a 12-year-old is fully cognizant of the outcome of their actions - and some choose to act as they do in spite of knowing they can spend their lives in prison.

:sarcasm: thingy attached for the intellectually impaired.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

4. I have to wonder what his mother may have been filling his head with

anyone know More of the story ?

[pnwmom]

5. He hasn't yet been convicted, except by some people reading news reports. n/t

[NanceGreggs]

6. A twelve-year-old is a child ...

... and has little (or no) understanding of the consequences of their actions.

As unpopular as that view may be in the circumstances, it is still a fact.

This child needs psychological help in understanding that.

This country needs psychological help in understanding that as well.

[pnwmom]

7. +1. n/t

[SPedigrees]

11. Agreed. Our justice system is approaching

that of medieval England when children could be hanged for stealing a loaf of bread.

[TheMadMonk]

14. Let us assume for the sake of argument that he did indeed pull the trigger.

Absent abuse which would hopefully come out in trial or beforehand, the most likely explanation is a pathological jealousy. The same sort of jealousy that in adulthood can and does lead to the sort of possessive boyfriend, husband, father who abuses, controls, and all too often kills when crossed.

It's that last symptom which is the kicker. Kills when crossed. Kills with no thought or consideration for personal consequences despite what is almost always considerable, brooding premeditation.

[SPedigrees]

15. Children do things for unfathomable reasons and usually

reach an adult age where they begin to think like a responsible adult. Why did I drop my aunt's earrings down the ash chute in the fireplace when I was 6, or swallow aspirin out of the medicine cabinet when I was 5? Why did my hubby systematically break all the whalebones in his grandma's girdle just to hear them snap and brand his baby sister with the car cigarette lighter at the same age? Looking back, half a century later, we can't imagine WHY.

Why do older youths knock over rural mailboxes and college students steal street signs for their dorm rooms?

The inexplicable erratic behavior of childhood wears off slowly as experience and responsibility gain a greater toehold. It is horrifying when these erratic impulses have fatal consequences, but it is thankfully rare.

It is not adult behavior IMO to treat a child as an adult, regardless of what he/she might have done. Parents should be responsible for their children if anyone is to be held accountable, but sometimes tragic accidents just happen.

[NanceGreggs]

16. Is that you, Dr. Frist?

"The most likely explanation is a pathological jealousy."

I'm assuming you have not met the child in question, nor examined him in your capacity as a psychoanalyst or psychiatrist - if indeed you have such capacity.

You then go on to extrapolate that "this kind of jealousy" goes on to lead to the type of adult male who abuses, controls, "and all too often kills when crossed", et cetera.

Admittedly, I am being snarky here - but I think with cause. Someone who has never had contact with this boy, nor knows all of the facts involved, should not be painting with such a broad brush - nor predicting what kind of adult he will turn out to be.

I don't want to start an argument here. I am just saying that this kind of projecting into the future smacks a bit too much of a "minority report" type of justice for my liking.

[TheMadMonk]

17. Selective quoting from our Nance? I would have thought better of you.

I did preface that with "ABSENT ABUSE..."

No, I'm not a shrink, but I have had childcare training, and I have looked after one or two kids like I posited this one might be and known others. Kids who try to excuse the serious injury they caused a sibling with "But he/she touched my..." and repeat it like a mantra right through the lecture.


Plenty of people here have armchair analysed Bush and others. Referring back to their cruelty to small animals and other childhood acts as obvious foreshaddowings of what was to come. AND expressed serious opinions that permanent intervention at the time would have saved the world a lot of trouble. THAT smacks of "Minority Report" thinking. That is extrapolating petty cruelty to the sort of pathology that sees a million or more dead as simply the price of doing business. Compared to that, equating exactly the same thought patterns and behaviour in child and adult is no stretch at all.


A child who demonstrates an actual capacity for premeditated murder, (a charge that prosecutors don't generally throw around lightly, since it's so easy to lose the whole shooting match over a minor detail) is I believe a sufficiently poor risk, that society is obligated to explore the advisabilty of incarceration for life.

BTW: that charge "premeditated murder" is a huge part of why I feel reasonably confortable with my "diagnosis" of pathological jealousy. This wasn't a sudden brain snap. Something was seriously festering for some time in this kid's mind, and when you put "festering" and "mind" together the usual suspect is the green eyed monster, jealousy.

[NanceGreggs]

18. Didn't mean to be taken as ...

... selectively quoting. You said "absent abuse", and I took that as a given in your comments on the matter.

Thing is there are factors other than physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse that can contribute to emotional instability in a child - sometimes to the point of a disconnect with reality.

In addition, despite your training and observation of "some kids", you are not in a position (nor am I) to judge what happened here, or why.

Twelve-year-olds are children, not fully developed adults, mentally, emotonally or physically. And while some childhood traits can be predictors of adult behaviour, many childhood traits are drastically changed as the child matures.

I am going to end it there. It is obvious you have already made up your mind about what happened here, and what the consequences should (according to you) be.

However (and no personal offense meant), I am grateful you're not part of the jury pool. Your last comment demonstrates a mindset I have heard all too often in my 25 years as a court reporter: they wouldn't have charged him with such-and-such if they weren't sure he's guilty.

You'd be surprised what people get charged with, and how flimsy the evidence used to "prove" those charges turns out to be in the end.

[pnwmom]

10. Guns should not be left in places where children can get hold of them. Period.

If this rifle had been locked up this wouldn't have happened.

[David__77]

13. That trying him as an adult is even debated is a terrible sign for civilization.

We must set boundaries for the protection of children. Even if a few are more mature, relatively speaking, they mustn't be tried as adults, and certainly not for something done at age 11! I will tell you that I was a very intelligent 11-year old, but I did not appreciate the consequences as I would have later.