Juvenile Cases

Case Name: People v. Vela , District: 4 DCA , Division: 3 , Case #: G052282
Opinion Date: 4/24/2017 , DAR #: 3958
Case Holding:
Juvenile offender who was charged by direct filing and tried as an adult is retroactively entitled to a transfer hearing under Proposition 57 because his case was pending on direct appeal, and not final, when Proposition 57 was enacted. Vela was sentenced to 72 years to life for murder and related gang charges for an offense committed when he was 16 years old. He was charged by direct filing and tried in adult court. While his appeal was pending, voters passed Proposition 57, which eliminated prosecutors' ability to directly file charges against juveniles in adult court. Instead, a juvenile's case may be transferred to adult court only after a transfer (fitness) hearing before a juvenile court judge. In a petition for rehearing in the Court of Appeal, Vela argued he was entitled to Proposition 57 relief under In re Estrada (1965) 63 Cal.2d 740. Held: Conditionally reversed. While laws generally operate prospectively only, Estrada provides that a law passed that lessens punishment should apply to cases pending on appeal, as the amendment represents an express determination that the former penalty was too severe. When a change in the law allows a court to exercise its sentencing discretion more favorably for a particular defendant, the reasoning of Estrada applies. Here, for a minor accused of a crime, it is a potential "ameliorating benefit" to have a neutral judge, rather than a prosecutor, determine that he or she is unfit for rehabilitation within the juvenile justice system. It is also a benefit for a minor to remain in the juvenile court, where the primary emphasis is on rehabilitation. In approving Proposition 57, which was intended to broaden the number of minors who could potentially stay within the juvenile justice system, the electorate determined that the former system of direct filing was too severe. Thus, it is an inevitable inference that the electorate intended the potential ameliorating benefits of Proposition 57 to apply to every case in which it constitutionally could apply. The court disagreed with People v. Cervantes (2017) 9 Cal.App.5th 569.

The appropriate remedy is conditional reversal dependent on the outcome of a juvenile transfer hearing. While Vela argued his convictions should be reversed, the Attorney General argued that the failure to provide Vela with a transfer hearing was harmless error. The court disagreed with both parties, concluding that the appropriate remedy is conditional reversal dependent on the outcome of a juvenile transfer hearing. The court directed the juvenile court to conduct a transfer hearing and, to the extent possible, treat the matter as though the prosecutor had originally filed a juvenile petition in juvenile court and had then moved to transfer the case to adult criminal court. If, after the hearing, the juvenile court determines that it would not have transferred the case, the juvenile court is to treat Vela's convictions as juvenile adjudications and impose an appropriate "disposition" within its discretion. Alternatively, if the juvenile court determines that it would have transferred the case to adult criminal court, the judgment will be reinstated, and the criminal court shall conduct a Franklin hearing. (See People v. Franklin (2016) 63 Cal.4th 261 [directing trial court to determine whether defendant had an opportunity to make a complete record of information that would be relevant at a youth offender parole hearing and, if not, permitting the parties to put relevant evidence on the record].)

The full opinion is available on the court's website here: http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/G052282.PDF
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Case Name: In re B.M. , District: 2 DCA , Division: 6 , Case #: B277076
Opinion Date: 4/20/2017 , DAR #: 3827
Case Holding:
Juvenile court's factual finding that a common butter knife was a deadly weapon was not wholly irreconcilable with the evidence. Appellant, a minor, attacked her sister with a metal butter knife while her sister was lying on her back in bed. The sister covered herself with a blanket for protection. Although she felt pressure from the knife through the blanket, she was not injured. The juvenile court sustained a Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 petition alleging appellant committed felony assault with a deadly weapon (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(1)). On appeal, appellant argued there was insufficient evidence that the knife she used was a deadly weapon. Held: Affirmed. "As used in section 245, subdivision (a)(1), a deadly weapon is any object, instrument, or weapon which is used in such a manner as to be capable of producing and likely to produce, death or great bodily injury." (People v. Aguilar (1997) 16 Cal.4th 1023, 1028-1029 [internal quotations omitted].) Here, the juvenile court, sitting as the trier of fact, made a factual finding "that the six-inch metal butter knife could be used to slice or stab, even though it was not designed for such." Based on the facts of the case, the juvenile court's finding was not wholly irreconcilable with the evidence. When an object "is capable of being used in a 'dangerous or deadly' manner, and it may be fairly inferred from the evidence that its possessor intended on a particular occasion to use it as a weapon should the circumstances require, . . . its character as a 'dangerous or deadly weapon' may be thus established, at least for the purposes of that occasion." (People v. McCoy (1944) 25 Cal.2d 177, 189.) It does not matter that the victim was able to fend off great bodily injury with her blanket or that appellant was not skilled at using the knife. The court disagreed with In re Brandon T. (2011) 191 Cal.App.4th 1491.

The trial court properly denied appellant's motion to exclude her statements to a police officer after the attack, because appellant was not in custody during the interview. Appellant's sister called 911 after the attack and an officer drove to her residence. The officer saw appellant outside and asked her if her name was B.M., and appellant said yes. The officer asked appellant to walk towards him and sit against the bumper of his marked patrol vehicle so he could talk to her about what happened, and they talked about the altercation. On appeal, appellant argued her constitutional rights were violated because the officer did not inform her of her Miranda rights before detaining and questioning her. The Court of Appeal disagreed. Miranda advisements are required only when a person is subjected to custodial interrogation. The test for Miranda custody is, would a reasonable person have felt he or she was not at liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave. Based on the totality of the circumstances, appellant was not subjected to custodial interrogation. She was not placed under arrest or in handcuffs, and there was only one officer present. The detention was not prolonged and occurred in a noncoercive atmosphere. The officer was not confrontational and did not use interrogation techniques to pressure appellant. Under these circumstances, a reasonable person in appellant's situation would have believed she was free to leave at any time and terminate the interview.

The full opinion is available on the court's website here: http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B277076.PDF

Rikers Juvenile Beaten

New York: Correction Captain Charged With Beating Teenage Rikers Inmate

A New York City Correction Department captain was arrested on Thursday and charged with beating an inmate at Rikers Island so badly that several of the prisoner's teeth were broken, and prosecutors say four other guards helped cover up the attack.
The captain, Sandy Arkhurst, 42, pleaded not guilty before Justice Robert Neary in State Supreme Court in the Bronx and was later released on $10,000 bail. The four other officers charged - John Penafiel, 29; Christopher Squillaro, 31; Orlando Rivera, 58; and Michael Nicholson, 42 - were also released on $5,000 bail after denying the charges.

A federal monitor overseeing reforms at Rikers Island found in a report this spring that guards continued to use brutal force against inmates at an alarming rate and often lied to cover up those incidents. Those findings came despite efforts to clean up the troubled jail complex after the city reached a sweeping settlement agreement in 2015 in response to a lawsuit. Mayor Bill de Blasio has backed a plan to replace the sprawling complex with smaller jails.

All five guards were members of a special unit that was called to the Eric M. Taylor Center, one of the island's jails, on June 3, 2016, to deal with an 18-year-old inmate, Rodolfo Rodriguez, who was refusing to go into his cell, prosecutors said.




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