People v. Self

Opinion

NICHOLSON, J. The Welfare and Institutions Code provides that a juvenile court may find a 14- or 15-year-old unfit to be dealt with under the juvenile court law if the district attorney alleges the minor committed one of the offenses (hereafter, a predicate offense) specified in Welfare and Institutions Code section 707, subdivision (d). (Further statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.) If the juvenile court makes such a finding, the district attorney may proceed against the minor in the superior court under the criminal law. (§ 707.1, subd. (a).) Here, we decide whether the superior court must return the case to the juvenile court if the minor is convicted of nonpredicate offenses but the predicate offense is dismissed.

After the district attorney alleged that 15-year-old Erik R. Self committed attempted murder (a predicate offense) and other offenses (nonpredicate offenses), the juvenile court found him unfit to be dealt with under the juvenile court law. In the superior court, the minor was tried and convicted by jury of first and second degree burglary and assault with a deadly weapon (nonpredicate offenses). The jury also found he used a deadly weapon and inflicted great bodily injury. However, the jury hung on the attempted murder charge, and the court dismissed that charge on the district attorney’s motion. After denying the minor’s motion to return the case to the juvenile court, the superior court sentenced him to state prison for 10 years.

We conclude the superior court was not required to return the case to the juvenile court after it dismissed the attempted murder charge. Accordingly, we affirm.

[61]Facts

On February 26, 1995, at approximately 12:30 a.m., the minor and a friend went to Denise Birchfield’s home to steal her car. The minor broke into Birchfield’s car, found her spare house key in a door pocket and entered the house to search for her car keys.

Birchfield was awakened by the sound of the key turning the lock on her front door. After seeing the entry light come on and hearing noises coming from the kitchen, she called out her son’s name, thinking he had come home late. As she got out of bed and walked down the hall, she saw a light go out. She approached the family room and observed someone in the comer holding an object. Before she could react or say anything, the minor stabbed her with a knife twice just below her right breast. She fell to the floor, and he stabbed her twice in the left leg and once in the left ear. One of the stabbings lacerated her liver, which was potentially life threatening.