Without warning, Jordan (pictured in his mugshot as a child) was abruptly arrested for the deaths, despite there being no DNA, blood or fingerprints linking him to the crime. Photo / Supplied
Without warning, Jordan (pictured in his mugshot as a child) was abruptly arrested for the deaths, despite there being no DNA, blood or fingerprints linking him to the crime. Photo / Supplied
A 21-year-old American man who was wrongly convicted and jailed for murdering his father's pregnant fiancee is speaking out for the first time since his release from prison.
Jordan Brown talks about the confusion he felt for years following his detention in a juvenile delinquency facility for the death of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, in an interview with Juju Chang on ABC's 20/20, the Daily Mail reported.
The interview with Brown airs in the US on ABC later this week. Photo / Supplied
He was pulled from his bed, arrested and was then charged less than 24 hours after her body was found.
Brown was released in July, 10 years after he was convicted for a crime he didn't commit, and claims it took him almost two years into his sentence to realise why he was in custody.
"I can't remember if they told me what happened. I knew that my step mom passed away. I didn't how, or what was going on. And I didn't know that I was there because of that," Jordan said.
"I didn't know until, I don't know, maybe until I was like 13, 14 maybe."
On July 18, the Supreme Court overturned Jordan's adjudication of delinquency on a first-degree murder charge, and he was set free.
His full interview with Chang airs on Friday in the US at 10pm Eastern on ABC.
Jordan's father, Christopher Brown, spoke about the case in a press conference on July 23.
"You go from hours, to days, to weeks, to months and then years — and here we are nine years later," Christopher said.
"Half of his life he spent in this system to get to our final day today. To me that's an issue. That's an issue."
Jordan's soon-to-be step mother, Kenzie Marie Houk. Photo / Supplied
Jordan spent at least seven years locked up in a facility for juvenile delinquents, for a murder he didn't commit, that seemingly occurred at his childhood home in Lawrence County Pennsylvania.
"I was 11 years old when this all happened. I had no idea what was going on," he told ABC, in his first official interview since he was released three months ago.
"All I remember is waking up, the police taking me, and I was in jail, and that was it."
Before Jordan's whole life changed in an instant, Jordan had been living with his father, Kenzie, and Kenzie's daughters, Jenessa, seven, and Adalynn, four, in their home on Wampum-New Galilee Road, in New Galilee, Pennsylvania.
Jordan's soon-to-be step mother, Kenzie, was found dead on February 20, 2009, in their home shortly after Jordan had left for school that day, along with Jenessa.
According to her obituary, she died of a gunshot wound to the head. Her unborn child, who had been named Christopher Houk-Brown, did not survive.
After Kenzie's body was found, police found a youth-sized shotgun in the home that they claimed smelled like it had been recently fired and discovered gunshot residue on Jordan's shirt and pants. Yet there was no physical residue from the murder anywhere to be found on the firearm.
And then without warning, Jordan was abruptly arrested for the deaths, despite there being no DNA, blood or fingerprints linking him to the crime.
He was adjudicated delinquent (which is the term used rather than "convicted" in juvenile court) in 2012 of first-degree murder and first-degree homicide, and would spend the next nine years fighting to clear his name.
Finally, in July, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously overturned his adjudication of delinquency related to the murder charge.
In a 47-page opinion the court cited insufficient evidence, and Jordan was finally freed.
"At the end of the day, if anything positive comes of this is maybe some of the higher-ups look at this juvenile system and how broken it is," Christopher said.
The 20/20 special on this extraordinary story includes interviews with Jordan's father, Christopher, who stood by his son and fought for his innocence, along with Jordan's attorneys Dennis Elisco and Stephen Colafella, and Marsha Levick, Deputy Director and Chief Counsel of the Juvenile Law Center that worked with Jordan's lawyers on the case.
ABC also talks with former Pennsylvania State Police officers Jeffrey Martin, Troy Steinheiser and Robert McGraw, who worked on the case, with John Bongivengo, the initial District Attorney who prosecuted the case.
Local reporter Bob Mayo, who closely followed the story for years, also weighs in.
Brown's full interview with Chang, covering his journey over the past nine years, airs on Friday at 10pm Eastern on ABC.
