Court Opinion

ID: 9606892
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:53:57.975381+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:36.262482
License: Public Domain

Ingram, Justice,
concurring specially.
I dissented in Brown v. State, 235 Ga. 353, supra, as I *301disagreed with the majority conclusion that the superior court first took jurisdiction over the juvenile involved in that case. We have a similar problem here but an inadequate record upon which to make a determination.
Defense counsel contends that this juvenile was "placed in the custody of the Clayton County Juvenile Court Detention [facility] on December the 11,1974, on a juvenile complaint alleging that he was in [a] state of delinquency,” and that he was charged with armed robbery and motor vehicle theft in the juvenile court. Unfortunately, the record is not clear on the chronology of events which took place in the juvenile court and in the superior court. The Attorney General’s brief in a footnote states that, "While the record before this court discloses only a single petition alleging delinquency by virtue of having committed the offense of motor vehicle theft, apparently three juvenile petitions were docketed in the juvenile court on December 12, 1974, alleging armed robbery and motor vehicle theft.” The juvenile was subsequently indicted by a grand jury for these offenses on January 10, 1975.
The juvenile court may well have taken jurisdiction over this juvenile first, rather than the superior court. Under these circumstances, a transfer hearing is mandated under the Juvenile Code. Code Ann. § 24A-2501. If true, this court has a duty to enforce the Juvenile Code rather than permit jurisdiction of a juvenile to be wrenched away from the juvenile court by a subsequent indictment in the superior court. See J. W. A. v. State of Ga., 233 Ga. 683 (212 SE2d 849) (1975). Thus, I would prefer to require an evidentiary hearing in the trial court to determine which court acquired first jurisdiction. However, appellant assumed the burden of showing he should be returned to the juvenile court for a transfer hearing. He has not done so under the record we have on appeal. Consequently, I concur in the court’s judgment under the principle that he who asserts error must establish it.