Delinquency Case Law

In re Ryan N. (2001) 92 Cal.App.4th 1359 [112 Cal.Rptr.2d 620]. Court of Appeal, First District, Division 3.

The juvenile court adjudged a child a ward of the court under Welfare and Institutions Code section 602, for violating Penal Code section 401 (willfully and deliberately aiding, advising, and encouraging a suicide).

The child was driving the victim's car with the victim and another friend as passengers. The victim stormed out of the car in anger and threatened to jump off a bridge. The victim went to a friend's house, and the next day she saw the child driving her car. The child stopped and let the victim in the passenger's seat. The victim was feeling depressed and suicidal. The victim and the child had a discussion about suicide, including the ingestion of sleeping pills. Both the victim and the child went to a drugstore to obtain sleeping pills for the victim, and as the child was driving, the victim began ingesting 100 sleeping pills one at a time. The victim wrote a suicide note after she had ingested the pills, noting how horrible her parents were and that she loved the child. The child then drove the victim to a mall so that she could go to the bathroom. The child waited 40 minutes outside the mall, then went in. He found the victim on the ground, surrounded by security personnel. He waited until the paramedics came to the victim's aid, then left. Finding that the child had violated Penal Code section 401, the juvenile court placed the child on probation, ordered him to attend counseling, and committed him to juvenile hall for 90 days. The child appealed the decision of the juvenile court, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to support the court's finding and that his due process right was violated by the court's limiting his cross-examination of the victim.

The Court of Appeal reversed the decision of the juvenile court because the victim's suicide attempt had failed, but held that the child did commit an attempted violation of section 401. The appellate court is not the trier of fact and cannot substitute its own inferences for that of the juvenile court. It applied the same standard of review as would a criminal defendant challenging the sufficiency of the evidence. Section 401 provides that "every person who deliberately aids, or advises, or encourages another to commit suicide is guilty of a felony." Section 401 requires, beyond a mere verbal solicitation, active and intentional participation in events leading to the commission of an actual, overt act of suicide. (See In re Joseph G. (1986) 34 Cal.3d 429.) The language of the statute is limited to situations in which the victim actually accomplishes the suicide.

Purposefully aiding or soliciting an attempted suicide is an independent criminal offense. An attempt to commit a crime includes a specific intent to commit the crime and a direct but ineffectual act toward its commission. There was sufficient evidence to find the child guilty of an attempt to violate section 401 through his actions deliberately aiding, advising, and encouraging another person to commit suicide. In this case, the child advised the victim to ingest 100 pills, helped her to obtain the pills and handed them to her, and encouraged her to commit suicide. The appellate court reversed the decision of the juvenile court and found that the child had attempted to violate section 401. The appellate court rejected the child's contention, based on the juvenile court's rulings limiting his cross-examination of the victim, that his constitutional rights had been violated under the due process and confrontation clauses.