Jonaitis v. State

437 N.E.2d 140, 1982 Ind. App. LEXIS 1306
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 12, 1982
Docket3-781A179
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 437 N.E.2d 140 (Jonaitis v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jonaitis v. State, 437 N.E.2d 140, 1982 Ind. App. LEXIS 1306 (Ind. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinions

HOFFMAN, Presiding Judge.

This is an appeal from an order waiving juvenile jurisdiction over Kathy Jonaitis. Following the Porter County Juvenile Court’s waiver of jurisdiction, Jonaitis pled guilty to dealing in marijuana, a class D felony,1 in exchange for an agreement by the State to dismiss two charges of dealing in phencyclidine.2 She received a two-year sentence which was suspended with certain conditions.

The issues raised by Jonaitis have been combined and restated as follows:

(1) whether Jonaitis was charged with an act that was part of a repetitive pattern of delinquent acts;
(2) whether Jonaitis was beyond rehabilitation under the juvenile justice system;
(3) whether there was sufficient evidence to support the trial court’s finding that it was in the best interests of the community that Jonaitis stand trial as an adult; and
(4) whether Jonaitis’ Sixth Amendment right of confrontation was denied when the trial court admitted into evidence laboratory reports on the substances delivered by Jonaitis to an undercover police officer.

IC 1971, 31-6-2-4 (Burns Code Ed.) provides:

“(a) Waiver of jurisdiction refers to an order of the juvenile court that waives the case to a court that would have jurisdiction had the act been committed by an adult. Waiver is for the offense charged and all included offenses.
“(b) Upon motion of the prosecutor and after full investigation and hearing, the juvenile court may waive jurisdiction if it finds that:
(1) the child is charged with an act:
[142]*142(A) that is heinous or aggravated, with greater weight given to acts against the person than to acts against property; or
(B) that is a part of a repetitive pattern of delinquent acts, even though less serious;
(2) the child was fourteen (14) years of age or older when the act charged was allegedly committed;
(3) there is probable cause to believe that the child committed the act;
(4) the child is beyond rehabilitation under the juvenile justice system; and
(5) it is in the best interests of the safety and welfare of the community that he stand trial as an adult.”

The charges against Jonaitis involved drug transactions on March 1, March 18, and April 24, 1980. Prior to this time, Jonaitis had had no contact with the juvenile justice system. Jonaitis basically contends that before the trial court could find that there was a repetitive pattern of delinquent acts, there should have been evidence of prior referrals of Jonaitis to the juvenile court.

IC 1971, 31-6-4—1(a)(1) (1980 Burns Supp.) provides: “A child commits a delinquent act if, before his eighteenth birthday, he: (1) commits an act that would be a crime if committed by an adult....” The statute does not provide for a fact-finding hearing and judgment. It merely defines “delinquent act.” It is this definition which must be applied in waiver hearings.

IC 1971, 31-6-4-14 does provide for a fact-finding hearing and judgment in a juvenile delinquency proceeding. In such cases, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the juvenile committed the delinquent acts. Matter of Ort (1980), Ind.App., 407 N.E.2d 1162. This is not a delinquency hearing however. We are concerned here only with the waiver of jurisdiction by the juvenile court. In waiver cases, the State need only prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the prerequisites to the waiver exist. Imel v. State (1976), 168 Ind.App. 384, 342 N.E.2d 897. To accept Jonaitis’ definition of “delinquent act” would mean requiring the State to first obtain an adjudication of delinquency, with the required criminal standard of proof, in order to establish by a preponderance of the evidence in the waiver hearing that a delinquent act was committed. This result clearly could not have been intended by the Legislature. To the contrary, the Legislature defined “delinquent act” in IC 1971, 31-6-4-1. The State must establish by only a preponderance of the evidence that the child has committed acts which would be crimes if committed by an adult in order to support the trial court’s waiver.

Additionally, this Court and the Indiana Supreme Court both have held that a waiver is not an adjudication of delinquency. To hold otherwise would mean that an adjudication of delinquency would be res judi-cata in the criminal trial subsequent to any waiver, not to mention the grave double jeopardy problems which would be created by such reasoning.

See Walker v. State (1976), 265 Ind. 8, 349 N.E.2d 161, cert. den., 429 U.S. 943, 97 S.Ct. 363, 50 L.Ed.2d 313; Bey v. State (1979), Ind.App., 385 N.E.2d 1153 and the cases therein.

Jonaitis was charged with two counts of dealing in a Schedule III controlled substance and one count of dealing in marijuana as a result of three separate transactions which occurred on three separate occasions. All three were acts which would be offenses if committed by an adult.3 The trial court did not err in finding Jonaitis was charged with acts which were repetitive and constituted a pattern of delinquent acts.

Jonaitis also contends that the trial court erred in finding that she was beyond rehabilitation under the juvenile justice system. She alleges that there was insufficient evidence to support such a finding and that the trial court found that she was beyond rehabilitation under the juvenile justice system simply because she was eighteen years of age.

[143]*143The waiver order states, in pertinent part:

“4. The acts as charged are repititive [sic] and constitute a pattern of delinquent acts occurring on three separate dates. Said child is beyond rehabilitation under the juvenile justice system inasmuch as since she has now turned 18 years of age, should she be found delinquent in the juvenile system, the most restrictive disposition available to the Court would be that of ‘probation’ or, placing the child under the supervision of the Probation Department, should [sic] such probation in any [sic] be violated by the juvenile, there would be no more restrictive disposition available to the juvenile [sic] Court.”

Record at 31.

The trial judge did not find that simply because Jonaitis was eighteen years of age she was beyond rehabilitation in the juvenile justice system. Instead, he recognized the limited options for disposition available to him in the juvenile system due to her age, and determined that those options were not adequate for Jonaitis and therefore she was beyond rehabilitation under the juvenile justice system.

The question then becomes whether the finding that Jonaitis was beyond rehabilitation under the juvenile justice system was supported by sufficient evidence. It was.

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Jonaitis v. State
437 N.E.2d 140 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
437 N.E.2d 140, 1982 Ind. App. LEXIS 1306, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jonaitis-v-state-indctapp-1982.