In Re Wasif M.

INTRODUCTION

The juvenile court declared defendant and appellant Wasif M. a ward of the court and found that he had thrown stones at a bus, in violation of Penal Code section 219.2. Defendant contends that section 219.2 requires the specific intent to strike or wreck a bus, and that there was insufficient evidence that he acted with the requisite intent. Defendant further contends that the juvenile court abused its discretion by admitting evidence that defendant had thrown rocks through a high school window on the same day as the act that is the subject of the section 219.2 charge and by not reducing the offense from a felony to a misdemeanor. In the published portion of this opinion, we hold that section 219.2 does not require the intent to strike or wreck a bus. In the unpublished portion of this opinion, we discuss and hold that there was sufficient evidence to establish defendant’s violation of that statute and that the juvenile court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of defendant’s prior rock-throwing and in declining to reduce the offense from a felony to a misdemeanor.

BACKGROUND

In a petition filed on January 21, 2003, pursuant to Welfare and…