In re N.M. CA1/2

Filed 9/29/16 In re N.M. CA1/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

In re N.M., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law. THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. N.M., A148099 Defendant and Appellant. (Contra Costa County Super. Ct. No. J16-00198)

N.M., a 17-year-old minor at the time of his offense, pled no contest to violent felony, first degree residential burglary (Pen. Code, §§ 459, 460, subd. (a), 667.5, subd. (c)(21)), and now appeals his one-year commitment to the Orin Allen Youth Rehabilitation Facility. N.M. urges instead that he be placed at home on supervised probation, subject to a stayed commitment to the youth facility. The juvenile court’s disposition was not an abuse of discretion, and we affirm. BACKGROUND N.M. was born in Pakistan, to parents who eventually came to live in Afghanistan where his father still remains.1 N.M. and his mother emigrated to the United States in 2011 when N.M. was thirteen, and are presently here legally, seeking asylum. When they

1 We state the facts in the light most favorable to the judgment.

1

arrived, N.M. spoke no English, didn’t fit in with other kids and faced ridicule. At first they lived with relatives in Southern California, and later moved to Northern California. At the time of N.M.’s offense, he and his mother were living with his older sister and her five-year-old son, in his sister’s federally subsidized, low-income housing in San Ramon. His sister, a full-time college student on financial aid, supported all four of them solely out of her $500/month earnings as a part-time librarian. N.M. and his mother are ineligible for public benefits. On November 23, 2015, at about 10:00 a.m., N.M. was arrested with two other youths driving a stolen car. He admitted to police that he and his friends had stolen it; he also admitted they vandalized it with spray paint. All three were issued juvenile citations and released to their parents. The burglary took place the following month, at approximately 11:00 a.m. on the morning of December 24, 2015. N.M. had been knocking on the doors of at least two homes in a San Ramon condominium complex that morning, suspiciously asking for cash donations to the high school football team but without any paperwork or credentials. The owner of a third condominium left his house for about 30 or 40 minutes to go look for his cat and left the door to his home ajar. When the homeowner returned around 11:15 a.m., he found a blanket full of wrapped Christmas presents on the ground outside his home and his tan slippers, all taken from his house. N.M. had dumped his own white sneakers on the ground too, making off with the homeowner’s black Nike high-top sneakers. There had been no forced entry and the house had not been ransacked. The homeowner’s college-age son, and his daughter and her friend had been asleep upstairs. According to the homeowner, $950 in cash had been stolen: $800 in family savings intended for assistance to relatives abroad and $150 from his son’s wallet, which were summer job earnings his son had been planning to spend on Christmas shopping that day. Also stolen was a key to the daughter’s modest, eight-year-old car, a pair of black pants and a $100 Nordstrom gift certificate both of which had been under the Christmas tree. N.M. also stole the son’s driver’s license. Most of the stolen items were eventually recovered.