Details Emerge in Pennsylvania Killing

By JOE MANDAK

,

AP

PITTSBURGH (Feb. 23) - An 11-year-old boy apparently covered his shotgun with a blanket to keep it hidden when he left his bedroom, went downstairs and fatally shot his father's pregnant girlfriend in the head as she slept, a prosecutor said Monday.

The blue blanket, which has a quarter-sized hole that appeared to be singed from a shotgun blast, supports a claim that the crime was premeditated, Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo said.

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A Shocking Crime

The Houk Family / AP

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A Pennsylvania boy covered the shotgun he used to allegedly kill his dad's pregnant girlfriend with a blanket to conceal it before the attack, a prosecutor said Monday. Jordan Brown is accused of murdering 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, who is seen here with her daughters from a previous relationship.

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Police found the blanket in the farmhouse where the boy, Jordan Brown, lived with his father; the father's girlfriend, Kenzie Marie Houk; and her two daughters, ages 7 and 4. Houk was killed Friday morning while Brown's father was at work and the two girls were in the home, authorities believe.

"The operating theory is that he covered the gun with the blanket to hide it when he came downstairs" from his bedroom to shoot Houk, who was in a first-floor bedroom, Bongivengo said. "It wasn't used to muffle (the shot) or anything, the blanket wasn't thick enough for that."

Brown got the youth-sized shotgun as a Christmas present, and used it to win a turkey shoot on Valentine's Day.

After shooting Houk, the boy ran to get on a school bus with the 7-year-old, who saw him toss something from his pocket on the ground, Bongivengo said. Police later found a spent 20-gauge shotgun shell at that spot.

The girl later implicated the boy in the killing, saying she saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang, Bongivengo has said.

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