Nearly fifteen years after police arrested an 11-year-old Lawrence County boy for the shotgun death of his father’s girlfriend, Jordan Brown says he continues to suffer from fear, humiliation, and mental anguish.

Now 26-years-old, Jordan Brown makes those claims in a statement filed in advance of an upcoming trial in federal court on Brown’s allegation that police got it wrong when they blamed him for the February 20, 2009, murder of 26-year-old Kenzie Houk and her unborn son at their home in Wampum, Pennsylvania.

The trial, scheduled to begin on February 5, 2024, in the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, centers around Brown’s conviction for the murder, which was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after more than nine years of being held in detention.

Houk’s body was found in the home after Jordan had left for school. Police concluded that the 11-year-old used his own shotgun to shoot Houk in the back of the head.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from former Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Pawlowski, as well as Troopers Janice Wilson, Jeffrey Martin, Robert McGraw, and Troy Steinhauser, who investigated the crime.

Jordan Brown (Age 11)
Jordan Brown (Age 11)  

In his statement, Brown claims that police did not initially cordon off the crime scene, spreading blood and fingerprints throughout the house, and contaminated the scene by moving vehicles over the gravel driveway.

Brown alleges that at least a dozen vehicles drove up and down the driveway destroying all evidence of footprints and tire tracks.

The statement suggests that Houk may have been murdered by an ex-boyfriend, against whom Houk had previously obtained a protection order.

On July 28, 2018, Jordan was exonerated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which concluded that the evidence introduced at his trial was insufficient to establish his conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.

A final pre-trial in the case is scheduled for late January.

Brown’s statement may be seen below.