State v. T.J.B., 2018AP2449, 5/22/19, District 2 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity
T.J.B. was charged as a juvenile with various drug and gun charges; he’d sold a little less than a pound of weed and was in possession of two handguns. (¶¶5-8). The State sought waiver into adult court.
Whether to waive a juvenile is a discretionary decision with enumerated statutory criteria the trial court must consider. J.A.L. v. State, 162 Wis. 2d 940, 960, 471 N.W.2d 493 (1991); Wis. Stat. § 938.18(5)&(6).
T.J.B. claims that the circuit court made findings not reasonably supported by the facts, but the court of appeals disagrees. The briefs in this appeal being confidential, there’s really no way to assess the merit of T.J.B.’s claims or the court’s rejection of same. The principal disputes center around T.J.B.’s apparent rehabilitation between his arrest and the waiver hearing, the fact that as a 17-year-old, he would age out of the juvenile system in under a year, and the significance to assign to his small stature and mental-health concerns.
