In Re Anthony R.

This juvenile appeal deals with a post-Proposition 8 construction of Penal Code section 666. The section states: “Every person who, having been convicted of petit theft, grand theft, burglary, or robbery and having served a term therefor in any penal institution or having been imprisoned therein as a condition of probation for such offense, is subsequently convicted of petit theft, then the person convicted of such subsequent offense is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison.” (Italics added.)

The 17-year-old appellant was continued as a ward of the court pursuant to a sustained supplemental petition filed February 23, 1983, charging appellant with committing a petit theft, “having been previously convicted of the crime of Petty Theft on the 7th day of July, 1981, in the Juvenile Court of the Superior Court of the State of California and having thereafter served a term therefor in a penal institution and having been imprisoned therein as a condition of probation for said offense, thereby violating Section 666 of the Penal Code of California, a felony.”

Appellant, a California Youth Authority (CYA) parolee, was…