Other Cases Affecting Children

People v. Self (1998) 63 Cal.App.4th 58 [73 Cal.Rptr.2d 501]. Court of Appeal, Third District.

A 15-year-old child was found unfit to be tried in the juvenile court based on an allegation that he committed the predicate offense of attempted murder. The child was then convicted in adult court of first- and second-degree burglary and assault with a deadly weapon, which were nonpredicate offenses. The jury hung, however, on the attempted murder charge, and the district attorney decided not to retry the case. The child motioned the trial court to return him to juvenile court. The motion was denied, and he was sentenced to 10 years in the state prison. The child appealed, contending that the trial court should have returned him to juvenile court because he was not convicted of a predicate offense.

The Court of Appeal looked at legislative intent and held that the trial court retains jurisdiction to sentence the child because the legislative scheme clearly states in Welfare and Institutions Code section 707.1, subdivision (a) that once a juvenile court finds a child unfit, criminal law governs the case. The court also rejected the child's contention that section 707, subdivision (d) violated his due process rights because it allowed the prosecutor to "bind the court by his charges, regardless of the ultimate adjudication of the charge's truth." The Court of Appeal, disagreed holding that the prosecutor's decision to charge a child with a predicate offense is a necessary finding when determining fitness; however, it is not determinative because at the fitness hearing the "primary focus is the minor's amenability to rehabilitation within the juvenile justice system and not the nature of the pending charges."