State ex rel. H.H.

754 A.2d 635, 333 N.J. Super. 141, 1999 N.J. Super. LEXIS 466
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedDecember 17, 1999
StatusPublished

This text of 754 A.2d 635 (State ex rel. H.H.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. H.H., 754 A.2d 635, 333 N.J. Super. 141, 1999 N.J. Super. LEXIS 466 (N.J. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

JACKSON, J.S.C.

The juvenile, H.H., has been charged with one count of attempted murder, a first degree offense, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:5-1 [144]*144and N.J.S.A 2C:11-3a(1); one count of aggravated assault, a second degree offense, in violation of N.J.S.A 2C:12-1b; one count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, a third degree offense, in violation of N.J.S.A 2C:39-4d; and one count of possession of a prohibited weapon, a fourth degree offense, in violation of N.J.S.A 2C:39-3e.

Allegedly H.H. stabbed another juvenile in the chest, with a knife, at Oakcrest High School on January 6, 1999. H.H. was taken into custody at the school following the alleged offense, charged as indicated above, and she has been held detained in the Harborfields Youth Detention Center since her arrest. The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office has filed a Motion to remove jurisdiction from the Chancery Division, Family Part, Juvenile Court, pursuant to N.J.S.A 2A:4A-26(a). This opinion considers whether H.H. should be tried as an adult in the Superior Court, Law Division, or retained in the jurisdiction of the Chancery Division, Family Part, for trial of the offenses charged.

Based upon this Court’s consideration of the evidence presented and applicable statutory and case law, this Court finds that the State’s Motion to waive jurisdiction to the Superior Court, Law Division is hereby denied.

The purpose of the proceeding which has resulted in this opinion is to determine the appropriate forum for the trial of the pending charges against H.H.; guilt or innocence is not determined at this stage.

The prerequisites for the Juvenile Court’s determination regarding the State’s Motion to waive H.H. to adult court, set forth in N.J.S.A. 2A:4A-26a.(1) and (2), have been met by the State. The State and the defense have stipulated that H.H. was born on January 20, 1983. The alleged offense occurred on January 6, 1999. At the time of the alleged offense H.H. was fifteen (15) years old, thus satisfying the requirements of N.J.S.A 2A:4A-26a.(1).

[145]*145The defense has also stipulated that there is probable cause to believe H.H. committed a delinquent act which if committed by an adult would be a crime, as set forth in N.J.S.A 2A:4A-26a.(2). As previously stated, H.H. has been charged with attempted murder, an offense of the first degree, and aggravated assault, as a second degree offense, both of which are also known as Chart One Offenses. With the stipulations having been entered on the record regarding the age of H.H. at the time of the alleged offense, and probable cause to believe that H.H. committed Chart One Offenses, no additional showing by the State is required in order that waiver occur. State v. R.G.D., 108 N.J. 1 at p. 11, 527 A.2d 834 (1987); N.J.SA 2A:4A-26a.(1) and (2). A presumption in favor of waiver is created upon such showing by the State. State in the Interest of A.B., 214 N.J.Super. 558, 520 A.2d 783 (App.Div.1987); State in the Interest of S.M., 211 N.J.Super. 675, 512 A.2d 570 (App.Div.1986). Based upon the said stipulations and other evidence both testamentary and documentary, this Court finds that H.H. was over the age of 14 years at the time the offenses were allegedly committed and that there is probable cause to believe that H.H. committed a Chart One Offense.

Upon a finding that the State met its burden of showing that the prerequisites to waiver exist in this case, the burden of proof shifts to H.H. to show the probability of her rehabilitation, by use of the procedures, services and facilities available to the Court prior to her reaching the age of 19 years substantially outweighs the reason for waiver, to avoid waiver.

Before discussing the probability of rehabilitation and the weight to be given to it in this case, it would be beneficial at this point to set forth the factual background against which those issues are being considered.

Evidence presented indicates that H.H. has had no prior contact with the judicial system. She has no prior arrests and no formal or informal juvenile delinquency adjudications. She has no prior history of antisocial conduct. School records, psychological and psychiatric evaluations, and testimony presented to the Court [146]*146indicate that H.H. has been a good student obtaining good grades in honors classes and functioning on an above average intellectual level. Her report card of her academic achievement through April of 1998, during the academic year preceding the school year in which the alleged incident took place, placed in evidence as Defense Exhibit 2, indicates that she maintained a 95.875 average. She apparently has always excelled in school. She has received several certificates and awards for her academic and community activities including peer leadership, work on the homework hotline and computer club. Based upon the Court’s review of her art work placed in evidence, she is also a gifted artist.

H.H. is the oldest of five children. At the time of the alleged incident H.H. resided with her maternal grandmother, her 14 year old sibling and her 9 year old cousin. One of her siblings resides with an aunt and another resides with an great aunt. H.H. has been raised by and resided with her maternal grandmother, most of her life. Her grandmother obtained legal custody of H.H. when she was two years old. H.H.’s mother had substance abuse problems, and although her mother resided in the household with H.H., her grandmother and her siblings on and off for several years, apparently her mother left the household for good in 1987. H.H.’s mother was murdered in June, 1997, in a yet unsolved homicide in which her mother’s throat was cut or she was stabbed to death. Her father lives out of State and is remarried.

Police reports of the alleged incident for which H.H. has been charged indicate that on the date of the incident she had been sitting in the school cafeteria at lunch with a boy who had been her boyfriend for about a 1$ years until they broke up on December 7, 1998, which would have been approximately one month before the incident. While they were sitting in the cafeteria together, H.H. allegedly saw a note written on the bottom of the boy’s Spanish vocabulary list which read “I love you”. The boy advised police that upon seeing the note H.H. became angry, began to fuss and asked him who had written the note on his vocabulary list. He said H.H. thought it was written by the [147]*147alleged victim, who apparently was in the boy’s Spanish class at the time, though the boy advised the police that he told H.H. the victim had not written the note.

Statements were given to the police by other students indicating that sometime between the encounter with the boy in the cafeteria and the actual incident, H.H. had shown a knife in the school gym, which she had taken from her bookbag. Just prior to the incident, H.H. is alleged to have angrily told another student that the victim and her ex-boyfriend were “messing around” and she, was going to kill “her” and cut her ex-boyfriend. She is alleged to have later told the same student that she was going to “stab her”, the fellow student assumed that H.H. was referring to the victim. The same fellow student told the police that she and H.H.

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Related

State in Interest of AB
520 A.2d 783 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1987)
State ex rel. C. A. H.
446 A.2d 93 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1982)
State v. R.G.D.
527 A.2d 834 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1987)

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Bluebook (online)
754 A.2d 635, 333 N.J. Super. 141, 1999 N.J. Super. LEXIS 466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-hh-njsuperctappdiv-1999.