Arango v. State

518 S.W.3d 916
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 18, 2017
DocketNO. 01-16-00607-CR, NO. 01-16-00630-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 518 S.W.3d 916 (Arango v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arango v. State, 518 S.W.3d 916 (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

Rebeca Huddle, Justice

When Miguel Arango was 16, a juvenile court concluded that because of the seriousness of the offense with which he was charged—aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon—the welfare of the community required criminal proceedings. The juvenile court therefore transferred the case to criminal district court, for him to be tried as an adult.

Nine years later, Arango, still having not been tried, filed a pretrial habeas application in the criminal district court, contending that the juvenile court’s transfer was deficient under Moon v. State, 451 S.W.3d 28 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014), and therefore failed to vest the criminal district court with jurisdiction. The trial court denied habeas relief.

Arango appeals, contending that the trial court erred in denying pretrial habeas relief, because, if he were to be tried and convicted, the deficient transfer order will inevitably be vacated by an appellate court, making an intervening trial a needless waste of judicial resources. We agree that the juvenile court’s transfer order does not pass muster under Moon, and that denying habeas relief and proceeding to trial on the basis of an invalid transfer order that failed to vest jurisdiction in the district court would be a waste of judicial resources. We therefore reverse the trial court’s order denying habeas relief and render judgment granting the writ of ha-[919]*919beas corpus and dismissing the indictment filed in the district court in cause number 1133642. We remand the case to the juvenile court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Background

After being transferred from the juvenile court to criminal district court to be tried as an adult, Arango was indicted for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in October 2007.1 Nearly nine years later, in June 2016, Arango filed a pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus under article 11.08 of the Texas Code' of Criminal Procedure, challenging the jurisdiction of the criminal district court.2 Arango contended that the juvenile court’s order waiving jurisdiction and transferring the case to the criminal district court was identical to the order in Moon and deficient for the same reasons. Specifically, Arango argued that the juvenile court concluded that the welfare of the community required criminal proceedings based solely on the seriousness of his offense, but failed to make sufficient case-specific findings about the offense to support that conclusion. Arango argued that any conviction obtained in the district court would be vacated based on Moon and, rather than proceed with a trial that could eventually be deemed a nullity, the trial court shquld find the juvenile court’s transfer order invalid and dismiss the indictment.

The State responded that the criminal district court could not conclude that Aran-go’s transfer order was invalid in the absence of a record of the juvenile court’s transfer hearing. The State also argued that Arango’s claim was not cognizable on a pretrial habeas application because he could challenge the validity of the transfer order after final conviction and therefore had an adequate appellate remedy.

The criminal district court denied habe-as relief, seemingly on the basis that the legislature did not afford Arango a right to an interlocutory appeal of the juvenile court’s transfer order.3 Arango appealed.

Discussion

Arango contends that the criminal district court erred in denying habeas relief because the juvenile court’s transfer order is facially deficient under Moon, and the district court therefore lacks jurisdiction to try him. Arango argues that habeas relief is appropriate because requiring him to stand trial before obtaining appellate review of the transfer order would constitute a significant waste of judicial resources. We consider the juvenile court’s transfer order in light of Moon before addressing whether habeas relief is available under the present circumstances.

[920]*920A. Did the juvenile court’s transfer order vest jurisdiction in the district court?

1. Applicable Law

Any person accused of committing a felony offense between his tenth and seventeenth birthdays is subject to the exclusive original jurisdiction of a juvenile court. Moon, 451 S.W.3d at 37. This means that the juvenile court has the power to hear and decide matters pertaining to the juvenile offender’s case before any other court, including the criminal district court, can review them. Id. at 37-38.

But the right of a juvenile offender to remain outside the jurisdiction of the criminal district court is not absolute. Section 54.02 of the Juvenile Justice Code permits juvenile courts, under certain conditions, to waive their exclusive original jurisdiction and transfer the child to the appropriate district court for criminal proceedings. See Tex. Fam. Code § 54.02(a).

To waive jurisdiction and transfer a child to the criminal district court under section 54.02(a), a juvenile court must find: (1)the child was 14 years old or older at the time of the alleged offense; (2) there is probable cause to believe the child committed the offense; and (3) because of the seriousness of the alleged offense or the background of the child (or both), “the welfare of the community requires criminal proceedings.” Id. In deciding whether the welfare of the community requires criminal proceedings, the juvenile court must consider four non-exclusive factors:

(1) whether the alleged offense was against person or property, with greater weight in favor of transfer given to offenses against people;
(2) the sophistication and maturity of the child;
(3) the record and previous history of the child; and
(4)the prospects of adequate protection of the public and the likelihood of the rehabilitation of the child by use of procedures, services, and facilities currently available to the juvenile court.

Id. § 54.02(f). While the transfer order must show that the juvenile court took the section 54.02(f) factors into account, findings of fact regarding these four factors are not necessarily required. Moon, 451 S.W.3d at 41-42 (“[T]he order should ... expressly recite that the juvenile court actually took the Section 54.02(f) factors into account in making this [waiver] determination, [b]ut it need make no particular findings of fact with respect to those factors[.J”).

But findings of fact supporting the juvenile court’s ultimate reasons for waiving its jurisdiction and ordering a transfer to district court are required and must be set forth in the transfer order. The Juvenile Justice Code expressly requires this: “If the juvenile court waives jurisdiction, it shall state specifically in the order its reasons for waiver and certify its action, including the written order and findings of the court[.]” See Tex. Fam. Code § 54.02(h); Moon, 451 S.W.3d at 38.

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Bluebook (online)
518 S.W.3d 916, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arango-v-state-texapp-2017.