Got a murder case. Defendant is young so pretty much his entire criminal past is as a juvenile. He was even on juvie probation at the time of the offense. He has an extensive history for arrests, TYC time, etc. as a juvie. His TYC records include a lot of juicy stuff (which refer to other bad acts as a minor). We are trying to sort through everything and figure out what might and might not be admissible (in either stage of the trial or for impeachment, etc). Can someone give me somewhere to start? Are "bad acts" (i.e., never charged with or convicted of) as a juvenile treated differently than bad acts as an adult? Will we be able to get these in?

You can post or email me at kelsey.mckay@co.travis.tx.us

thanks!

Look at Art. 37.07(a)(1) with respect to prior adjudications. To the extent that a juvenile ias adjudicated delinquent for a violation of a penal law of the grade of felony or a misdemeanor punishable by confinement in jail (virtually everything you adjudicate for), that will be admissible in punishment.

To go a step further, our position is that if the adjudication and disposition are admissible, the Juvenile's conduct while performing the disposition is admissible. We have been able to introduce bad acts (particularly TYC disciplinary reports) in the punishment phase. One of our local juvenile officers is designated the parole officer for TYC parolees. We have TYC get the records together and ship them to the parole officer/juvenile probation officer and she then testifies as the custodian of records on the case. Very helpfully, TYC records contain a summary of all violations which can be admitted in lieu of admitting every record (helpful when a kid has 400 or 500 violations).

As an additional aside, remember that if your kid was sent to TYC for anything other than a State Jail Felony Grade Offense, that you can use it to enhance his punishment from 5-99 to 15-99 under PC 12.42(a)(1) and 12.42(f).

And don't miss out on all the good info in his juvi probation file (especially the social histories/analysis of factors usually done for each and every adjudication and disposition) and his school file.

If he's been on juvi probation then he probably had some or all of the following:
psychological eval(s)
drug counseling
family counseling
anger management
group/peer counseling

And for even more, subpoena his school records, looking at his disciplinary record. His former teachers will tell you even more, providing a personal way to give the jury the information.