In the Matter of L.D.C., a Child

The question in this juvenile delinquency proceeding is whether the trial court committed reversible error by submitting ele ments of an offense to the jury disjunctively, allowing for a non-unanimous verdict. We answer no and therefore reverse the court of appeals’ judgment 1 and render judgment for the State.

L.D.C., age 16, admitted that during a street party near a middle school, he fired five or six shots from an AK-47 rifle “in the air”. A bullet fragment was later found in the sun visor of a vehicle parked nearby. Officer Martin heard the shots and drove up as L.D.C. and a friend, T.J.,…