Court Opinion

ID: 9566112
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:34:05.834082+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:10.657075
License: Public Domain

Judge Johnson
concurring.
I concur only because we are bound by this Court’s holding in State v. Lundberg, 104 N.C. App. 543, 410 S.E.2d 216 (1991), which relied upon In re Stedman, 305 N.C. 92, 286 S.E.2d 527 (1982). In Stedman, the Court held that an eighteen year old defendant could be indicted and tried as an adult for felony offenses allegedly committed when he was fifteen years old. In Lundberg, the Court held that a twenty-three year old defendant could be indicted and tried as an adult for a felony offense allegedly committed when he was thirteen' years old. In the instant case, we hold that defendant, who wás sixteen at the time of the indictment but who turned eighteen pending this appeal, could be indicted and tried as an adult for a felony offense allegedly committed when he was thirteen years of age.
Simply stated, the reasoning in Stedman, Lundberg and the case sub judice is that, having aged out of the district court’s jurisdiction over their person and the subject matter, the defendants who are now adults must be subjected to the jurisdiction of superior court for crimes they allegedly committed when the defendant in Stedman was fifteen, and the defendants in Lundberg and the instant case were thirteen years of age respectively. However, I find the facts of Stedman to be quite distinguishable from Lundberg and the instant matter in that the defendant in Stedman was fifteen years old at the time he allegedly committed the felony offenses.
*533North Carolina General Statutes § 7A-523(a) provides in pertinent part:
The [district] court has exclusive, original jurisdiction over any case involving a .juvenile who is alleged to be delinquent^] . . . For purposes of determining jurisdiction, the age of the juvenile ... at the time of the alleged offense . . . governs.
North Carolina General Statutes § 7A-523(a) (1989).
North Carolina General Statutes § 7A-608 states in pertinent part:
The court.. . may transfer jurisdiction over a juvenile 14 years of age or older to superior court if the juvenile was 14 years of age or older at the time he allegedly committed an offense which would be a felony if committed by an adult. If the alleged felony constitutes a capital offense and the judge finds probable cause, the judge shall transfer the case to the superior court for trial as in the case of adults.
North Carolina General Statutes § 7A-608 (1989). This statute has been recently amended to apply to juveniles thirteen years of age or older for acts committed on or after 1 May 1994! See North Carolina General Statutes § 7A-608 (Cum. Supp. 1994). Further, once the court obtains jurisdiction over a juvenile, jurisdiction continues “until terminated by order of the court or until he reaches his eighteenth birthday.” North Carolina General Statutes § 7A-524 (1989).
By providing that only juveniles of the age of fourteen or older (now thirteen or older) could be transferred to superior court, I believe the intent of the legislature was to preclude, under any circumstances, the trial of a juvenile below the age of fourteen (now thirteen) in superior court, or at any time in superior court for any offense committed by the juvenile (defendant) at the age of thirteen or younger. Since the age of the juvenile at the time of the alleged offense governs jurisdiction, it seems logical that the legislature’s intent with the enactment of North Carolina General Statutes §§ 7A-523 and 7A-608 was to mandate that any juvenile below the age of fourteen (now thirteen) charged with an offense be dealt with solely at the juvenile court level, the expectation being that hopefully the services available at that level would help the juvenile to become a law abiding and productive citizen before age fourteen (now thirteen) and older. Otherwise, the age limitation governing the transfer of a juvenile to superior court has no meaning.
*534This distinction becomes apparent in Stedman because at the time the defendant therein allegedly committed the offenses, he was fifteen and was therefore in that age category the legislature intended to be subject to the jurisdiction of the superior court under the transfer provisions of North Carolina General Statutes § 7A-608. This is not so with offenders below the age of fourteen (now thirteen) who the legislature, in my opinion, did not intend under any circumstances to be tried in superior court at any age or under any circumstances for offenses committed below the age of fourteen (now thirteen). This is buttressed by the earlier cited recent amendment to North Carolina General Statutes § 7A-608.
To read the statutes otherwise would lend them to possible abuse and illogical results. For example, suppose a district court judge was faced with a fourteen year old juvenile who stood charged with having committed a felony offense at age eleven which was not lodged against the juvenile until the juvenile was age fourteen. Could the district court judge, considering the fact that the juvenile has aged out of the protective group of age twelve or younger, transfer the juvenile to superior court for trial? I think not. But this is the effect of what happened in Lundberg, and in the instant case, i.e., the defendants were allowed to be indicted and tried in superior court for offenses allegedly committed by them at age thirteen, an age at that time within a protected class that precluded-this result.
I realize that if the Lundberg Court had held that the defendant could not have been indicted and tried in superior court, and the defendant had aged out of the jurisdiction of the district court, the crime, under the current law, would go unpunished. However, this is a matter that should be addressed within the province of the legislature and not our courts.