Present: All the Justices 

SANTOS PANAMENO 

v. Record No. 971361 OPINION BY JUSTICE ELIZABETH B. LACY 

 April 17, 1998 

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA 

FROM THE COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA 

 Santos Panameno seeks reversal of his convictions for 

rape and extortion because the order entered by the juvenile 

court transferring him to the circuit court for adjudication 

did not contain a finding that Panameno was competent and, 

therefore, Panameno contends that the circuit court did not 

acquire jurisdiction to try him as an adult. We conclude 

that, when a defendant does not contest his competency to 

stand trial, Code § 16.1-269.1 does not require an explicit 

finding of competence by the transferring court and, 

therefore, we will affirm the judgment of the Court of 

Appeals. 

 In May 1995, petitions charging 17-year-old Panameno with 

two counts of rape and three counts of extortion were filed in 

the Arlington County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District 

Court. Following a hearing, that court entered an order 

transferring Panameno to the Circuit Court of Arlington County 

for trial as an adult. The order did not contain an explicit 

finding that Panameno was competent. Panameno appealed the 

certification order. Following a hearing, the circuit court 
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concluded that the transfer order substantially complied with 

§ 16.1-269.1, and that it had jurisdiction over the matter.

The Commonwealth obtained indictments against Panameno. 

He entered a conditional plea of guilty on two counts of rape 

and one count of extortion but reserved the right to challenge 

on appeal his certification as an adult and the transfer of 

the case to the circuit court. The circuit court accepted 

Panameno's conditional plea and sentenced him to a four year 

indeterminate term. The Court of Appeals denied Panameno's 

petition for appeal. We awarded an appeal on a single issue: 

whether § 16.1-269.1 requires the juvenile and domestic 

relations court to make an explicit finding that the juvenile 

is competent before entering an order of transfer to the 

circuit court. 

 Prior to 1994, § 16.1-269 required that, in order to 

transfer a juvenile defendant to circuit court for trial as an 

adult, the juvenile and domestic relations court had to make a 

number of specific findings, including a finding that the 

juvenile was "competent to stand trial." If the juvenile and 

domestic relations court did not make this finding, the 

circuit court could not acquire jurisdiction over the 

juvenile. See, e.g., Matthews v. Commonwealth, 216 Va. 358, 

361, 218 S.E.2d 538, 541 (1975)(interpreting former § 16.1-176 

(repealed 1977), the predecessor of § 16.1-269).
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 Section 16.1-269 was repealed in 1994 and replaced with 

§ 16.1-269.1, the statute applicable in this case. The 

current statute makes transfer of a juvenile to the circuit 

court "subject to the following conditions." As relevant 

here, one condition for transfer is that: 

3. The juvenile is competent to stand trial. 

The juvenile is presumed to be competent and the 

burden is on the party alleging the juvenile is 

not competent to rebut the presumption by a 

preponderance of the evidence . . . . 

§ 16.1-269.1(A)(3). 

Panameno argues that pursuant to this section, a finding 

of competence must be made by the transferring court. 

However, the language in former § 16.1-269 directing the trial 

court to make specific findings before transferring a juvenile 

is not contained in the current section. By this deletion, 

the General Assembly has determined that, unless the 

competency of a juvenile is challenged, an explicit finding by 

the juvenile and domestic relations court that the juvenile is 

competent is not required. In this case, Panameno neither 

alleged that he was incompetent to stand trial nor did he 

present any evidence to that effect. Therefore, an explicit 

finding that Panameno was competent to stand trial was not 

required. 

 Accordingly, we will affirm the judgment of the Court of 

Appeals. 

Affirmed.