In Interest of WRA

481 So. 2d 280, 1985 Miss. LEXIS 2422
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 27, 1985
Docket55853
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 481 So. 2d 280 (In Interest of WRA) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Interest of WRA, 481 So. 2d 280, 1985 Miss. LEXIS 2422 (Mich. 1985).

Opinion

481 So.2d 280 (1985)

In the Interest of W.R.A., a Minor.

No. 55853.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

November 27, 1985.

*281 Howard Q. Davis, Jr., Clark, Davis & Belk, Indianola, for appellant.

Ben L. Saucier, Sunflower Co. Pros. Atty., Indianola, for appellee.

Before PATTERSON, C.J., and HAWKINS and ROBERTSON, JJ.

ROBERTSON, Justice, for the Court:

I.

This appeal arises from Youth Court proceedings the course of which has been unusual, as will presently appear. Most important of the questions presented are those respecting the taking of a confession for a youthful offender. We find on the facts presented Miranda[1] warnings followed by the youth's knowing and intelligent waiver of his privilege against self-incrimination and his right to counsel, coupled with the youth's mother's knowing consent to the interrogation, sufficient to render a confession admissible even where it is arguably the fruit of a previous, tainted inculpatory statement.

In the end we affirm the Youth Court's adjudication of delinquency. Because some five weeks thereafter it appears that the Youth Court transferred jurisdiction of these matters to the Circuit Court, we hold that prosecutions there for the felony charges which formed the bases for the adjudication of delinquency may not be had consistent with the youth's rights under the double jeopardy clauses of federal and state constitutions. We remand for disposition under the Youth Court Act.

II.

W.R.A. was born on October 17, 1966. In terms of IQ and educational achievement, he is of obvious low intelligence. He has spent the better part of his teenage years before the Chancery Court of Sunflower County, Youth Court Division (hereinafter "The Youth Court"). He appeals here an adjudication of delinquency arising out of incidents occurring on February 24, 1984, at a time when W.R.A. was seventeen years of age.

On February 7, 1984, W.R.A. was detained by the Police Department of Indianola, Mississippi, for investigation of the burglary of the Indianola Junior High School and the Seymour Library. On February 8, 1984, W.R.A. was released to the custody of his mother. These charges are not directly involved in the pending appeal.

On or about February 17, 1984, a petition was filed in the Youth Court seeking to have W.R.A. adjudicated delinquent on the February 7 charges. An adjudicatory hearing was set for February 29, 1984. Gary L. Austin, Esq., of the Indianola Bar, was appointed to represent W.R.A. The hearing on these charges was later rescheduled for March 14, 1984.

W.R.A.'s rearrest on February 24, 1984, has led to five additional charges resulting ultimately in this appeal. He was arrested *282 in Inverness, Mississippi, was questioned by the Inverness Police Department and made an inculpatory statement at about 9:35 A.M. on February 24, 1984. The Inverness Police Department called the Indianola Police Department some eight miles north suggesting that W.R.A. might have been involved in the theft of an automobile in Indianola. As a result of that call, Captain E.L. Steed was dispatched from Indianola to bring the youth back for further questioning. On that same day Indianola police officials took highly incriminating statements from W.R.A. the times of which have been recorded as 2:34 P.M. and 2:45 P.M. respectively.

Although appointed on February 17, 1984, to represent W.R.A. on the February 7 charges and continually representing him on those charges through the hearing on the second Wednesday of March, Gary L. Austin was not called on February 24 and informed that W.R.A. had been apprehended; nor was he present; nor did he give his consent to anyone to take W.R.A.'s statement.

To summarize, W.R.A. was charged with seven offenses during the month of February, 1984. A chronology of these is helpful to an understanding of the issues tendered on the instant appeal:

  DATE         CHARGE                W.R.A.'s ATTORNEY        DISPOSITION
  2/7/84    Burglary of Jr. High     Gary L. Austin           Unknown
            School                   Appt. 2/17/84
  2/7/84    Burglary of Henry M.     Gary L. Austin
            Seymour Library,         Appt. 2/17/84            Unknown
            Indianola
  2/21/84   Burglary of Gary         Howard Q. Davis, Jr.     Dismissed
            McNally's Home
  2/24/84   Burglary of home of      Howard Q. Davis, Jr.     Dismissed
            James McFeltan,
            Inverness, Miss.
  2/24/84   Grand Larceny of         Howard Q. Davis, Jr.     Adjudicated
            automobile of Dickie                              Delinquent
            Carr
  2/24/84   Grand larceny of         Howard Q. Davis, Jr.     Adjudicated
            automobile of Dennis                              Delinquent
            Buzza
  2/24/84   Burglary of automobile   Howard Q. Davis, Jr.     Adjudicated
            of Herbert E. Calhoun                             Delinquent

The last three of these charges constitute the instant appeal.

With respect to the three charges here at issue, the Youth Court on April 17, 1984 entered its order adjudging W.R.A. to be delinquent under the Mississippi Youth Court Act. The two charges regarding the burglaries of the McNally and McFeltan homes were dismissed, we are told, because the required consent to interrogate was not obtained and, accordingly, the confessions upon which those charges were based were obtained in violation of Miss. Code Ann. § 43-21-311(4) (1972). Those charges are not involved in this appeal. Our purpose here in describing the February 7 charges is to explain that on February 24, 1984, the date of the confessions undergirding the three adjudications here appealed, W.R.A. had counsel actively representing him before the Youth Court, albeit formally only with respect to the February 7, 1984 charges.

III.

At the outset, the Youth Court prosecutor moves for entry of an order dismissing this appeal asserting as grounds that there *283 is no final order entered in the Youth Court from which an appeal may be taken. Our attention is directed to the Amended Order Transferring Jurisdiction To Circuit Court entered May 23, 1984. Temporally, this is the final order entered in the course of the proceedings below.

Without doubt, no appeal of right lies to this Court from an order of a Youth Court transferring to circuit court jurisdiction over the alleged criminal conduct of a youthful offender. In the Interest of Watkins, 324 So.2d 232, 234 (Miss. 1975). If all that had been accomplished in the proceedings below was a transfer of jurisdiction to the Circuit Court, we would have no alternative but to dismiss the appeal.

The present record contains an order entered April 17, 1984 by the Youth Court adjudging W.R.A. to be delinquent with respect to the matters charged in three separate Youth Court petitions — two grand larcenies [Miss. Code Ann. § 97-17-41 (1972)] and one burglary [Miss. Code Ann. § 97-17-33 (1972)]. That order was entered the same day as a hearing was held in the Youth Court wherein the Youth Court prosecutor called witnesses and offered substantial evidence to prove W.R. A's delinquency on each charge.

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Bluebook (online)
481 So. 2d 280, 1985 Miss. LEXIS 2422, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-interest-of-wra-miss-1985.