In Re Arturo H.

Arturo H. appeals from a dispositional order committing him to the California Youth Authority after he was found to have possessed a pellet gun on school grounds in violation of Penal Code section 626.10, subdivision (a). The principal issue presented in the appeal is whether this statute applies if the pellet gun is inoperable. We conclude that it does, and thus that appellant violated the statute by possessing a pellet gun which was designed to shoot and gave the reasonable appearance of a shooting capability, even if it could not have been fired. Because the other contentions raised on appeal and in the related petition for habeas corpus lack merit, we affirm the judgment and deny the petition.

I.

Appellant was charged in a second supplemental petition with possession of “a .357 crossman pellet gun” on the grounds of the El Portal school in San Pablo. San Pablo Police Sergeant Burke testified at the jurisdictional hearing that he patsearched appellant in a classroom at the school on the afternoon of June 1, 1994, after being dispatched to the site in response to a report that a youth matching appellant’s description had pointed a gun at another youth. Burke found an…