save your life. hey, yo. this is "nightline." >> tonight, breaking news. a startling admission from saudi arabia in the death of journalist jamal khashoggi. president trump reacting. road to freedom. once dubbed america's littlest monster. >> this was the mugshot. >> i was crying in the picture. i was crying that whole night. >> arrested and convicted for murdering his pregnant soon to be stepmom when he was just 11 years old. now his conviction overturned. and speaking publicly for the first time to our juju chang. why one of the men who arrested him is sticking to his guns. >> we did not get this wrong. we didn't get it wrong. >> "nightline" will be right back.

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good evening. thank you for joining us. unexpected news tonight coming out of saudi arabia. state media for the first time acknowledging journalist jamal khashoggi is dead. he was just seen 17 days ago entering the saudi chons lat in istanbul. the saudis say khashoggi was killed in a fistfight.

18 saudi suspects are in custody for the slaying. several top intelligence officials, some with close ties to the crown prince, have been fired. tonight president trump called it "a good first step." >> i would have to say they have been our ally. we've had great relationships with them. this is a horrible event. it has not gone unnoticed. >> but president trump also adding he does not want to do cancel a $110 billion defense deal with saudi arabia which he says would cost american jobs. now we turn to the heart-wrenching story of one man trying to clear his name. at age 11 jordan brown was arrested and later convicted for murdering his pregnant, soon to be stepmom. at age 21 with his conviction overturned, he's talking publicly for the first time. here's my "nightline" coanchor juju chang. >> i was 11 years old when this all happened. i had no idea what was going on. i remember waking up, the police taking me, and i was in jail. and that was it. it's really embarrassing, i feel

like, to be in front of people and then not knowing what they're thinking. that was always a big thing. >> people thought you were a murderer. >> yeah. >> reporter: the headlines captivated the country. >> it happened inside this pennsylvania farmhouse -- >> child killer accused of a shocking crime at the age of 11 -- >> reporter: an 11-year-old boy labeled america's littlest monster. accused of shooting his pregnant, soon to be stepmom with a shotgun in cold blood. >> this is an execution-style killing. >> did you understand what you stood accused of? >> no, i didn't understand. >> reporter: the case tearing a family apart. >> he's a murderer and i'll say it. his father needs to get him every morning and look in the mirror and say, i am the father of a murderer. >> reporter: nearly 10 years later, legal bombshell. jordan brown's murder conviction overturned. now speaking publicly for the first time. how do you explain to somebody what that's like to be accused of murder? >> being accused of it, just a

horrible feeling, i can't explain it. i wouldn't want anybody to feel it. >> reporter: the now 21-year-old jordan says growing up, he remembers happiness. what kind of childhood would you say you had up until 11? >> normal, i guess. i mean, i had friends always coming over. we used to always play. like games, like video games. >> reporter: by the time jordan was in fifth grade, hi dad, christopher, had gotten engaged to kensy houck. single parents, their families blended. 11-year-old jordan, 7-year-old janessa, 4-year-old adeline, all under one roof. what was your relationship like with your soon to be stepmom? >> it was strong. i liked her a lot. >> reporter: jordan says he called kenzie mom, and the family had more reason to rejoice. kenzie was pregnant with a baby boy. >> i always wanted a little brother.ha a boy. that's what i was going to get. >> reporter: on february 20th, 2009, a cold, frigid morning,

that happiness shattered. >> i remember getting up that morning. running a little late for work. she'd asked me to stay home that day and i didn't. that's something that's haunted me. >> what do you remember? >> it was just a normal morning. my sister janessa woke me up. >> reporter: 8 1/2 months pregnant, kenzie stayed in bed as they got ready for school. >> she told us to go because the bus is coming, we were going to be late. we hurried up, went out the backdoor, ran down the driveway, went to school. >> reporter: after they got on the bus, at 8:15, it was just kenzie and adline, who was asleep in her bed inside the house. around 9:00 a.m., a crew of men arrived to start cutting trees on the property. a short time later spotted 4-year-old adeline at a door. shedead. they call police. >> i remember the coroner saying, as he started to touch the body, "we have a problem." that's when we realized that it was a homicide.

>> reporter: kenzie had been shot in the back of the head at close range. >> they told me that her and the baby were gone. i remember collapsing in the yard. i lost it. >> reporter: police interview both jordan and janessa at school. at first neither reported anything out of the ordinary that day, except one thing. jordan did notice a black truck parked near their farmhouse. in the very first interview with police, you mention that you saw a vehicle in the driveway. >> i didn't think anything of it. just a truck. i thought it was just some guy there doing work or something. but that's what i told them. >> reporter: officers would interview the kids again later in the day. by 3:30 a.m. the following morning, police were pounding at the door. with a warrant for 11-year-old jordan. >> they drug me -- put me in the back of the car. they took me to the police garrison. i was in there. they took me straight to county jail. i had no idea. it wasn't anybody -- it was a bunch of strangers.

i was mind blown. >> reporter: just 18 hours after kenzie's death, jordan stood accused of her murder. his mugshot shows the 11-year-old, face puffy from crying. this is the mugshot that was taken. >> i was crying in the picture. i was crying that whole night. i didn't understand what was happening. i didn't know where i was at, what was going on, anything. >> reporter: police say they believe the strongest piece of circumstantial evidence against jordan came from kenzie's 7-year-old daughter, janessa. police, speaking to janessa again late on the night of the murder, say the 7-year-old had a startling new recollection, that she saw jordan moving his guns that moving. then -- >> she told me when she was waiting downstairs for jordan, she heard a big boom. and she identified it as the sound of a gun. >> do you remember doing anything with those guns that day? >> no. >> you never brought the guns downstairs? >> no, i never touched them. >> reporter: despite saying that was one of the reasons they arrested jordan, that bombshell interview was never entered into

evidence at trial. janessa never testified. does it occur to you maybe they didn't enter into it evidence because it wasn't reliable? >> no. no way, shape or form. you're talking about a 7-year-old taking a stand in a courtroom. it had nothing to do with her being unreliable. >> reporter: but the defense says from the get-go there are huge issues with the case against jordan. >> all they really arrested him on, largely, was the statement of janessa. as time went on they completely abandoned that statement. which would have been the strongest evidence in the case. and, rather, tried to pursue a prosecution based upon this forensic evidence. >> reporter: the case worked its way through the legal system for years, while jordan was forced to grow up in a juvenile detention center. chris brown drove 230 miles round trip every day to see his son. >> looking back now, i don't know what i would have done without him. >> reporter: chris says he did consider the possibility that jordan may have shot kenzie. >> i gave him every opportunity. jordan, listen, if something

happened, accidents happen, buddy. if something happened, tell me, i'm not going to be mad at you, i'm your dad. i'm never not going to be your dad, i'm never not going to be here every day. >> what did he say? >> never. never changed his story. maintained his innocence throughout, from day one. >> obviously the police believe that you killed kenzie. did you kill kenzie? >> no. >> reporter: life on the inside was tough. but there were good moments, like his 12th birthday party. >> it was like the best day i ever had. because i haven't seen my friends in so long. they all came up. we were there a couple hours. >> reporter: jordan attended classes in detention but was mainly self-taught, reading books with a dictionary by his side. >> if i would come across a word i didn't know, look it up, that way i know what was trying to be said. that's how i read. >> reporter: two years went by as his lawyers battled to move jordan's case from adult court to juvenile court. they succeeded. but in 2012 a devastating blow.

a judge found jordan, who was now 14, guilty, sentenced to remain in juvenile detention. his defense team quickly appealed, vowing to take the case to the state supreme court. >> an 11-year-old child can't make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and drink a glass of milk without leaving clues. >> reporter: investigators believe jordan used his child-sized shotgun to kill kenzie just before leaving for school. when jordan was arrested the prosecutor at the time, john bonjavengo, told reporters jordan's clothing showed evidence of gun residue. >> i have a shotgun blast to the back of the head, consistent with a .20 gauge, he has a .20 model in his room. >> reporter: the defense argues the gunpowder came from a turkey shoot days earlier, and it's just as likely those particles of gunshot residue could have transferred to jordan's clothes. >> the absence of tissue or

blood on his clothing, on the barrel of the gun? it's almost inconceivable a shotgun was fired at close range and it wouldn't deposit any tissue, any blood, on the barrel of the gun or his clothing. which he wore to school. >> reporter: but the prosecution's expert testified that the angle at which the gun was shot could have minimized blowback. the defense wasn't buying it. >> i really was expecting this overwhelming evidence. forensics and witnesses and all the things that you typically see or would hope to see in a case of that magnitude. for them to be so sure that they're going to take this little 11-year-old boy through that process? it just wasn't there. >> reporter: but if jordan didn't kill kenzie, who did? chris believes investigators had tunnel vision and tells them they need to take a long, hard look at adam harvey, kenzie's ex-boyfriend of six years. >> she feared him. >> she was terrified of him? >> she had protection orders, protection from abuse orders. >> reporter: harvey denies all

claims. >> unbeknownst to jordan, his soon to be stepmother had a pfa against a gentleman who when had been threatening to kill her, leaving threatening messages, to happened to drive a black truck. >> jordan brown described a black pickup truck, when coincidentally adam harvey was stopped in, hugely significant. >> reporter: police say based on the snow on harvey's truck, he could not have driven to and from kenzie's home that morning. >> a light coating of snow on the ground. when his truck was pulled over a short distance from his house, it still had snow on the hood. >> reporter: police say adam harvey had an alibi, and they also tested his hands for the presence of gunshot residue. there was none. >> as the interview progressed through the first half hour, 40 minutes, i just got no indication that it was adam. >> reporter: after the interview, harvey was cleared as a suspect. since his arrest in 2009, jordan spent seven summers behind bars. he maintained his innocence throughout and was released on

probation after he turned 18, a free man. but still determined to overturn the guilty verdict against him. >> the judges are being asked to rule jordan brown was wrongly found guilty on insufficient evidence -- >> reporter: finally, this summer, jordan hears the decision from the supreme court of pennsylvania. in a stunning victory, the court wrote that the prosecution failed to prove jordan brown guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. his conviction overturned. >> it is incredibly rare for a supreme court to say that there is simply not enough evidence here. it's not that the court is saying 100% he's innocent. but the court is saying that there's certainly not enough evidence to convict. >> reporter: one of the things the supreme court pointed out, police were never able to prove jordan's shotgun was the murder weapon. >> the truth finally got out. >> reporter: but not everyone believes it. we talked to the cops who say

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"nightline" continues. juju chang reports. >> reporter: it's been nearly ten years since 26-year-old kenzie houck was brutally murdered in her bed, her unborn baby boy killed along with her. >> kenzie was feisty, funny, always had a beautiful smile. liked everybody. she loved her children. >> that's all she ever said when

you say, what do you want to be when you grow up? i want to be a mom, i want kids. >> reporter: since her death kenzie's family has raised her daughters janessa and adline, their lives a loving tribute to their mother's memory. >> we used to dance and sing on the fireplace. that was my favorite memory. i'm just like her. i am her little mini me. >> reporter: tonight kenzie's younger daughter, adeline, 4 then, now 13, is coming forward publicly for the very first time with an account that flies in the face of the prosecutor's timeline. remember, she was asleep upstairs at the time of the murder. >> the gunshot was what woke me up. i was so young, i did not know what the sound was. i was just going to walk in to wake her up and her phone rang. i answered the phone. i was like, hi. they were like, can i talk to your mom? i went to wake her up and her face was facing me. i was like, hey, mom, wake up. and when i turned her over, i realized. >> reporter: adeline says she realized her mom was dead.

>> i went outside. and i asked the tree men that were cutting down trees. went back into the house and i remember a very nice cop had sat me on the chair and told me everything was going to be all right. and i just sat there and cried with my little blanket. >> reporter: a tree trimmer spots adeline sometime after 9:00 a.m. so according to adeline's account, jordan and janessa, on the bus at 8:15, would have been long gone when kenzie was killed. police and jordan's attorneys say they have never heard adeline's account. investigators say after so much time, it's not credible. yet some members of the houck family still believe jordan is guilty. >> it's real life. i think it's a shame that one minute, two minute decision he made ruined so many lives and took away two lives. >> it's heartbreaking. i can't believe why someone would want to kill -- i just kill -- i just don't know why,

whoever did it, i'm not going to say who -- >> reporter: furthermore, former trooper bobby mcgraw is still convinced that jordan brown is guilty of first degree murder, despite the pennsylvania supreme court overturning his conviction citing lack of evidence. >> this case was investigated by some of the finest police officers in this country. every trooper who investigated that case feels the same way. we did not get this wrong. we didn't get it wrong. >> if those troopers were standing right here, what would you say to them? >> shame on you. is probably the most polite way to put it. you took an 11-year-old's childhood away from him. you've ruined his name. i mean -- you google jordan brown, you get that mugshot picture that pops up. >> you think that this accusation led to a real killer getting away with murder? >> absolutely. and that's disturbing. there's a murderer walking

amongst us that has been overlooked. >> reporter: jordan brown, meanwhile, is finally a free man. no longer a terrified 11-year-old boy. during jordan's long incarceration, he says he maintained a 3.9 gpa. taught himself how to play guitar. he also became a pretty good basketball player. released from detention when he was 18, through it all, he says he harbors no ill will. >> i'm not angry. i think the whole what happened and the way it happened is b.s. >> there's still some people who will never be convinced. kenzie's family. >> i'm heartbroken. my heart goes out to them. >> reporter: through the years of bitter controversy, one truth never up for debate. kenzie and her unborn child will never be forgotten. i miss her >> reporter: today jordan brown is determined to leave his past behind, to focus on college and brighter days ahead.

>> that song was called "she talks to angels" by the black crows. >> what do you want to tell the world about you? >> that i'm innocent. that's the only then i really want people to know. >> our thanks to juju. we'll be right back. ♪ there are roadside attractions. and then there's our world-famous on-road attraction. the 2019 glc. lease the glc 300 for just $489 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing.

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that's "nightline" for this friday night. thanks for the company, america. good night. have a good weekend.