T.L.W. v. State of Alabama

── T.L.W. v. State of Alabama ── Court: Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama Date: May 01, 2026 Author: Anderson Category: General Rel: May 1, 2026 Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0650), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published in Southern Reporter. Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals OCTOBER TERM, 2024-2025 _________________________ CR-2025-0412 _________________________ T.L.W. v. State of Alabama Appeal from Mobile Juvenile Court (JU-23-1374.09) ANDERSON, Judge. T.L.W. appeals her delinquency adjudication in the Mobile Juvenile Court for the delinquent act of third-degree escape, § 13A-10-33, Ala. Code 1975. She claims that the juvenile court erred when it denied her motion to dismiss the delinquency petition on double-jeopardy grounds. CR-2025-0412 This argument fails, however, and the judgment of the juvenile court is affirmed. Facts and Procedural History In October 2023, the juvenile court adjudicated T.L.W. delinquent for committing the delinquent act of third-degree domestic violence, and, as part of T.L.W.'s sentence, the juvenile court placed her on probation. (C. 14-15.) Thereafter, T.L.W. escaped from juvenile-detention officers during a court-ordered mental-health appointment and remained at large for approximately one month. (R. 5-6; Supp. R. 4, 11.) Once she was captured, T.L.W.'s juvenile probation officer filed a petition to revoke her probation, alleging that she had committed the new offense of escape. (C. 29, 54.) The State later filed a delinquency petition charging T.L.W. with second-degree escape.1 (C. 5.) The juvenile court addressed the revocation and delinquency petitions during an April 8, 2025, hearing. At that hearing, T.L.W. admitted to violating the conditions of her juvenile probation but denied 1The juvenile court later amended the charge against T.L.W. to third-degree escape, at the State's request. (R. 4; Supp. R. 2-3, 6.) 2 CR-2025-0412 the allegations in the delinquency petition.2 (Supp. R. 2, 4-6.) The juvenile court accepted T.L.W.'s admission, found that she was "in violation of [her] probation," and committed her to the custody of the Alabama Department of Youth Services ("DYS") for mental-health treatment.3 (C. 22-23, 47; Supp. R. 6.) After admitting to the probation violation, and during the same hearing, T.L.W. moved to dismiss the delinquency petition under § 12-15-213(c), Ala. Code 1975, arguing that the petition violated her double-jeopardy rights because she had 2A copy of the revocation petition is not included in the record on appeal, but the reporter's transcripts indicate that both the petition to revoke probation and the delinquency petition were based on T.L.W.'s escape from custody. (R. 5; Supp. R. 4-6.) 3The juvenile-court referee's written findings and recommendation concerning the April 8, 2025, hearing contains a checked box reading "adjudicated delinquent." (C. 22.) The hearing transcript, however, indicates that the referee concluded that T.L.W. had violated the conditions of her probation but did not adjudicate her delinquent of third- degree escape. (Supp. R. 6.) This Court observes that the form used by the referee did not contain any check-box option for a violation of probation. Additionally, a later order indicated that T.L.W. denied the allegations in case number JU-2023-1374.09, the case in which she was charge