NEW CASTLE — The case of Jordan Brown will remain closed to the news media.

A three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court today ruled against three western Pennsylvania newspapers, including the New Castle News, which sought to open proceedings.

Jordan, now 14, was 11 years old when he was charged as an adult with two counts of homicide.

The ruling was issued two days after the third anniversary of the Feb. 20, 2009, shooting of Kenzie Houk, 26, the pregnant fianceé of Jordan’s father, Chris Brown. She died of a gunshot wound in the New Beaver Borough farmhouse she and her two daughters shared with Jordan and his father.

Jordan has been in custody since then. He is lodged in the Edmund M. Thomas Adolescent Center in Erie.

Lawrence County Judge John W. Hodge had ruled last fall that the proceedings be closed to the public and news media. This is typically the case of all hearings involving juveniles.

Jordan was adjudicated a juvenile on Aug. 23, 2011. The newspapers, arguing that proceedings had been open to the public up until that date, appealed Hodge’s ruling.

(Reporter Nancy Lowry is working on this developing story and will have complete details in Thursday’s print edition of The News.)