People v. Travis W.

What started as a drug buy ended as a carjacking. An adult held a gun on the owner and demanded the keys to the car while Travis W. and another person forced the owner to his knees. When the owner produced the keys, it was Travis who took them. Travis himself never held the gun. The primary issue presented by this timely appeal is whether the juvenile court was correct in concluding that what Travis did constituted “[cjarjacking . . . while armed with a dangerous or deadly weapon” within the meaning of Welfare and Institutions Code section 707, subdivision (b)(25), 1 which was the basis of Travis’s commitment to the California Youth Authority for a period not to exceed 10 years.

*371 The offense for which defendant was committed is described in subdivision (b)(25) as follows: “Carjacking, as described in Section 215 of the Penal Code, while armed with a dangerous or deadly weapon.” The issue before us is whether “armed” means that the minor must be personally armed with a dangerous or deadly weapon when the offense was committed, or whether it applies to principals to the offense who were not personally wielding the weapon.

We begin by examining the words of the…