Court Opinion

ID: 9850165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:52:56.978983+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:32.699693
License: Public Domain

*741LEVINSON, Judge
dissenting'.
Consistent with the specific, express allowance found in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7B-2603(d) (2005), the defendant has a right to appeal the transfer decision. This is, in fact, the necessary application of this Court’s decision in State v. Brooks, 148 N.C. App. 191, 557 S.E.2d 195 (2001).
As a part of the transfer order by the district court, the trial court necessarily rejected defendant’s constitutional challenge to the transfer statute. Defendant has taken appeal from a final judgment — the one as regards his conviction for second degree murder — and, as a part of his appeal, he may challenge the transfer order from the district court. Section 7B-2603(d) does not limit the term “convicted” to circumstances where defendant was convicted by jury; it therefore includes circumstances, like these, where defendant was “convicted” by virtue of his guilty plea in superior court.
I would reach the merits of this appeal and conclude that the requirement that juveniles be transferred to superior court where there is probable cause to believe they committed a Class A felony offense does not run afoul of the Constitution.