Filed 8/25/26 In re J.T. CA2/8
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IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

In re J.T., a Person Coming B344352
Under the Juvenile Court Law.
______________________________ Los Angeles County
THE PEOPLE Super. Ct. No.
SJ0394B
Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

J.T.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from orders and judgment of the Superior Court
of Los Angeles County, Susan Ser, Judge. Affirmed.
Mary Bernstein, under appointment by the Court of
Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Chief
Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Assistant
Attorney General, and Steven D. Matthews and Rama R. Maline,
Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
 We affirm the juvenile court’s order setting the baseline
term to seven years in committing appellant J.T. to a secure
youth treatment facility (“Facility”) under section 875 of the
Welfare and Institutions Code and Rule 5.806 of the Rules of
Court. Since 2021, Facilities have been California’s most
restrictive placement for its most severe juvenile offenders. (In re
Tony R. (2023) 98 Cal.App.5th 395, 406.) Unspecified statutory
citations refer to the Welfare and Institutions Code and rule
references are to the Rules of Court.
J.T., born March 2008, is a documented 18th Street gang
member. His delinquency history began at the age of 12 with an
arrest for terrorist threats, and continued with a sustained
section 602 petition for assault with a deadly weapon when he
was 13. Also at 13, another sustained section 602 petition for
grand theft resulted in J.T.’s placement at a short-term
residential program. At 14, yet another sustained section 602
petition for attempted murder led to the juvenile court ordering
J.T. to a short-term camp community placement.
In a March 2024 section 602 petition, the prosecutor
alleged four felony counts against J.T.: one, the October 2023
murder of Jose Luis C.; two, the October 2023 attempted murder
of Gonzalo T.; three, the November 2023 attempted murder of
Francisco H.; and four, the November 2023 attempted murder of
Andrew T.
J.T. admitted all four allegations in December 2024. The
juvenile court accepted his plea, sustained the section 602
petition, and set the case for a contested disposition hearing the
following month.
The probation department recommended a Facility
commitment for J.T., noting his repeated violent behavior against

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other detained youth and probation staff at juvenile hall and his
“highly entrenched gang lifestyle.” It also reported that despite
J.T.’s “relatively young age, he is too sophisticated and dangerous
to be housed in juvenile halls, probation camps, or even closed
suitable placements” and he “has not shown any willingness to
change.”
No one disputed J.T.’s eligibility for a Facility placement.
He was 15 when he committed his most recent offense of
attempted murder, which section 707(b) lists as a qualifying
offense. (See § 875, subd. (a).)
The dispute concerned which of J.T.’s offenses the juvenile
court should use to select the baseline term for his Facility
placement. Under section 875, the juvenile court sets a “baseline
term of confinement” that “shall represent the time in custody
necessary to meet the developmental and treatment needs of the
ward and to prepare the ward for discharge to a period of
probation supervision in the community.” (§ 875, subd. (b)(1).)
The court must set the baseline term of confinement using the
ward’s “most recent serious” adjudicated offense. (Ibid.)
At the disposition hearing, J.T.’s lawyer urged the juvenile
court to use attempted murder, not murder, to set his baseline
term, because he committed attempted murder more recently
than he committed murder. Counsel’s brief argued “the baseline
term cannot appropriately be based on the murder charge, as
doing so would disregard the chronological sequence of events
and the integral principle that the most serious recent offense
must guide the determination of the baseline term.”
The juvenile court rejected J.T.’s argument. It agreed with
the prosecutor that attempted murder was the “controlling
offense for [J.T.’s Facility] eligibility, but there is nothing that

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prevents the court from using a different offense, even if it is
prior in time, which is [murder] and the more serious offense for
purposes of setting a baseline term.”
The juvenile court declared J.T. a ward under section 602,
ordered a Facility placement for him, and used his murder
adjudication to set the baseline term at seven years.
On appeal, J.T. repeats the same argument that the court
should have used attempted murder as the “most recent serious”
offense to set his baseline term. Again, this argument fails.
J.T.’s reliance on In re D.B. (2014) 58 Cal.4th 941 (D.B.) is
unavailing, as D.B. pertains to the juvenile justice statutory
scheme that section 875 replaced. (See In re Miguel C. (2021) 69
Cal.App.5th 899, 906–908.)
Nor does Rule 5.806 support J.T.’s interpretation of “most
recent serious” adjudicated offense in section 875, subdivision
(b)(1). A court only looks to Rule 5.806 once it has already found
a ward eligible for Facility placement and uses the rule’s offense-
based classification matrix to select a baseline term. (See In re
Jose R. (2024) 102 Cal.App.5th 839, 846 n.4.) As the prosecutor
correctly observes, Rule 5.806 does not restrict the juvenile
court’s discretion to consider an earlier adjudicated offense that is
more serious than the most recent one. It does not redefine or
narrow the statutory phrase “most serious recent” offense, nor
does it eliminate the qualitative assessment of an offense’s
seriousness as section 875, subdivision (b)(1) demands.
The juvenile court properly exercised its discretion in
setting J.T.’s baseline term at seven years.

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 DISPOSITION
We affirm the orders and judgment.

WILEY, ACTING P. J.

We concur:

VIRAMONTES, J.

SCHERB, J.

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