[J-88-2017] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA WESTERN DISTRICT SAYLOR, C.J., BAER, TODD, DONOHUE, DOUGHERTY, WECHT, MUNDY, JJ. IN THE INTEREST OF: J.B. : No. 31 WAP 2017 : : Appeal from the Order of the Superior APPEAL OF: J.B. : Court entered September 1, 2016 at No. : 980 WDA 2015, affirming the Order of : the Court of Common Pleas of : Lawrence County entered May 18, 2012 : at No. 113 of 2011, JUV. : : ARGUED: November 29, 2017 OPINION JUSTICE TODD DECIDED: JULY 18, 2018 J.B., a juvenile, appeals from the Superior Court’s order affirming the dispositional order of the juvenile court entered after its adjudication of J.B. delinquent of the offenses of first-degree murder and homicide of an unborn child in connection with the shooting death of his stepmother inside their family home on the morning of February 20, 2009. J.B. asserts that there was insufficient evidence to support his adjudication of delinquency beyond a reasonable doubt for these offenses, and, alternatively, that the juvenile court’s adjudication was against the weight of the evidence. Our careful review of the evidentiary record in this matter compels our conclusion that the evidence introduced at his adjudicatory hearing was insufficient, as a matter of law, to establish his delinquency for these offenses beyond a reasonable doubt. As a result, we are obligated to reverse the Superior Court’s order which affirmed the juvenile court’s order of disposition for these offenses. I. Factual Background In our prior opinion in this matter, In re J.B., 106 A.3d 76 (Pa. 2014) (“In re J.B. II”), we recounted the factual circumstances surrounding the criminal offenses for which J.B. was adjudicated delinquent. As these facts must be scrutinized as part of our consideration of J.B.’s present claims, we set forth those facts from that opinion in full: During February 2009, C.B. (an adult male), along with his fiancée — K.M.H (“the victim”) — her two daughters, J.H. (age 7) and A.H. (age 4), and C.B.’s 11-year-old son J.B. were living together in a two-story rented house. The house was located in a rural area surrounded by farmland and woods, and situated near the town of Wampum, Pennsylvania. During the predawn hours on the morning of Friday, February 20, 2009, C.B. left the house to go to work. According to C.B., it had snowed overnight, and at the time he was leaving — 6:45 a.m. — there was snow on the ground. N.T. Adjudication Hearing, 4/11/12, at 147. C.B. recalled that he departed in his usual fashion by backing his vehicle out of a parking area adjoining the rear of the house and onto the long driveway which led from a combination storage barn and garage complex (“garage”) located behind the house to the nearby thoroughfare of Wampum-New Galilee Road (“road”).1 He arrived at work approximately fifteen minutes later at around 7:00 a.m. Id. at 146. Later that morning, J.B. came downstairs from his upstairs bedroom in the house to get dressed for school. ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals