In re J.N. CA1/4

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 30, 2020
DocketA157518
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re J.N. CA1/4 (In re J.N. CA1/4) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re J.N. CA1/4, (Cal. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

Filed 9/30/20 In re J.N. CA1/4

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 FOUR

In re J.N., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

THE PEOPLE, A157518 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Solano County v. Super. Ct. No. J44330) J.N., Defendant and Appellant.

J.N. admitted allegations in a juvenile wardship petition that he took smartphones, computers, and other personal property from a group of seven victims by threatening them with a semiautomatic handgun. That admission provided the basis for true findings on four counts of second degree robbery in violation of Penal Code section 211, together with special allegations of personal use of a weapon accompanying each count. (Pen. Code, § 12022.53, subd. (b).) The juvenile court committed J.N. to the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) for a maximum term of confinement of eight years four months. On appeal, J.N. contends the court abused its discretion by committing him to the DJJ without sufficient evidence that the commitment would result in a

1 probable benefit to him or that less restrictive alternatives were inappropriate. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND A. The Offenses J.N., a young man of seventeen years old at the time of the offenses involved here, accompanied by S.N., accosted a group of seven students in the parking lot of a high school. J.N. was armed with a semiautomatic pistol. He ordered all the victims to the ground, demanded that they surrender various electronic devices and other personal property, and warned them that if they did not comply quickly enough they would die. After gathering up the loot from the robbery, J.N. and S.N began to leave, at which point one of the victims gave chase and was able to pry J.N.’s weapon from him. An altercation ensued during which one of the victims was severely cut with a knife, and J.N. suffered repeated blows to the head. S.N. and J.N. ultimately managed to escape the melee, got in a car parked nearby, and with S.N. at the wheel, started to drive away. As the pair tried to flee, J.N. and S.N. were detained and ultimately arrested by responding officers. In the car, the officers found backpacks and multiple cell phones and computers belonging to the victims. The officers did not find a firearm on J.N. or S.N, or in the car, but later found a loaded, semiautomatic pistol with blood on it and its serial number scratched off, lying in the grass near the high school. S.N. told officers that he saw J.N. lying on the ground not moving while several boys stood around him and one stomped on his head. J.N. was taken to the hospital for head injuries. He was unresponsive at times. Upon being discharged from the hospital, J.N. was read his Miranda rights and agreed to speak to an officer. He told the officer he did not

2 remember very much, and he denied having a gun during the incident with S.N. in the high school parking lot. He said the group of boys they fought with claimed to be Sureños and attacked him when he attempted to run. Later, when interviewed in the detention facility, J.N. said he did not want to talk about the incident because he was trying to forget it. He also said that he made a “big mistake” and wished that he could “take it all back.” He said he felt bad for what he did, and that he had been praying every day. He was having problems remembering things due to being kicked in the head. B. The Probation Reports The probation department’s Welfare and Institutions Code section 707 fitness report submitted in connection with an unsuccessful motion by the People to transfer the case to adult court noted that J.N. was involved in burglarizing vehicles in 2016 for which he completed a six-month felony diversion program. He was referred to the county juvenile accountability program for resisting arrest in April 2018. Then, in August 2018, J.N. was involved in an armed robbery at a Motel 6. He was the front passenger in a car driven by his brother, which was found with stolen bags and a gun reportedly used in the robbery. The case was still pending at the time of the robbery in this case. According to the fitness report, J.N. was in 11th grade, but not enrolled in school. When enrolled, he was chronically truant, had a history of bad behavior, and had received no credits since starting high school. He had regularly used marijuana since age 13. The report indicated that J.N. has five older brothers and that, when he was four, his parents divorced and he lived with his mother and two of his brothers. When J.N., his brother and mother were evicted in 2015, he lived with his father, but occasionally stayed with his mother and her boyfriend.

3 In connection with the disposition hearing, after J.N admitted the four second degree robbery counts in a 17-count petition, the assigned probation officer submitted a disposition report recommending that J.N. be committed to DJJ. The probation officer considered the nature of J.N.’s offenses and their impact on the victims; J.N.’s attitude towards the offenses; his parents’ attitude toward his continuing entanglement with the juvenile justice system; his background, and the available dispositional facilities. The probation officer concluded that J.N. was “at high risk to reoffend” and that among several areas of concern was J.N.’s drug use. In the disposition report, the probation officer took particular note of the “the totality of the offenses and the minor’s actions” during the offenses. She noted that J.N. approached the victims, “retrieved a firearm from his waistband, ‘chambered a round’ in front of the students, and pointed the firearm at them. His actions in ‘chambering a round’ of ammunition in front of the students, was intimidating and instilled fear in them, displaying a high level of sophistication. With the gun aimed at [the victims], he ordered them on their knees in a deliberate attempt to control [them] and their movements.” In arriving at a disposition recommendation, the probation officer also took note of and placed emphasis on the negative effects of J.N.’s actions on the victims: “One family declined to make a statement, but for the other six families, all shared their lives have been negatively affected by the crime. The victims do not feel safe in their home[s] and have had to increase safety measures at their homes. They do not feel safe at school and their school work and attendance ha[ve] declined considerably. Many of them are in therapy, have flashbacks and nightmares of the crime and are afraid someone is going to assault them again. Several of the victims thought they

4 were going to die that day when they had a gun pointed at their head[s]; three of them were pistol whipped by the codefendant. Several of the victims ran back to school and were dripping blood, had bloody shirts[,] and [one victim] had the tip of his thumb cut off. [¶] They are still afraid some of the suspects[’] friends may retaliate against them.” The probation officer noted that J.N. “admitted he has been smoking ‘a blunt or two’ every day this year (2018)” and “was selling Xanax at school.” And J.N.’s drug use was on top of a “considerable disciplinary record, which details a pattern of noncompliance, theft, disregard for authority, physical aggression and numerous threats of violence.” The probation officer detailed J.N.’s poor school attendance and poor performance when he did attend, a record that featured “37 all day truancies during the 2018 Spring semester” and failure to “receive[] any credits” toward graduation. Furthermore, it was reported, J.N.

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Bluebook (online)
In re J.N. CA1/4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-jn-ca14-calctapp-2020.