S.J.C. v. State

VILLANTI, Judge.

S.J.C. challenges an order withholding adjudication after the trial court found him guilty of committing a battery on his mother. He argues he was entitled to assert self-defense to his mother’s corporal punishment and that the State failed to overcome this defense beyond a reasonable doubt. We reverse.

Fifteen-year-old S.J.C. provoked his mother’s ire, according to her testimony, when she arrived home to discover he had skipped school to go fishing and had written profanity on his sister’s makeup case. She approached S.J.C., who was sitting in a recliner, intending to “pop”…