Boy, 11, shoots father’s pregnant girlfriend in head

A US jail warden said yesterday he would ask a judge to move an 11-year-old boy accused of killing his father’s pregnant girlfriend to a juvenile detention centre.

Jordan Brown, of Wampum, Pennsylvania, has been charged as an adult with using his own 20-gauge shotgun to kill 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, who was eight months pregnant, in the back of the head while she lay in bed on Friday.

The boy has been in the county jail since Saturday.

Lawrence County Warden Charles Amado said his 300-inmate jail cannot offer proper long-term care for the boy.

The fifth-grader was picked up from school on Friday by Pennsylvania State Police, who found Houk’s body at her farmhouse after her four-year-old daughter told tree cutters on the property she thought her mother was dead.

Brown told police there was a suspicious black truck on the property that morning. But inconsistencies in the boy’s description of the vehicle led police to re-interview the victim’s seven- year-old daughter, who implicated the boy, Lawrence county district attorney John Bongivengo said.

“She didn’t actually eyewitness the shooting. She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang,” he said.

The weapon, a 20-gauge shotgun, was found in what police believe was the boy’s bedroom. The shotgun apparently belonged to Brown.

Brown’s lawyer Dennis Elisco said the evidence pointed to the gunshot wound being “consistent” with the boy’s hunting gun, but he wanted to see stronger proof.

Elisco, who said the boy’s father is in a state of shock, said he planned to file a motion to release the boy on bail and move the case to juvenile court.

Prosecutors are not discussing a motive, but experts on mixed families say it is not unusual for children to feel anger and fury toward a parent’s new mate.

A preliminary hearing is set for next Thursday.