Failure to label minor’s wobbler offense requires remand regardless of likelihood of sentence change; the error can be raised for the first time on appeal
In In re F.M., the Supreme Court today holds that a violation of a statute mandating a superior court to declare a minor’s offense to be a felony or misdemeanor when the offense could be either — what is known as a wobbler — requires a remand when the record doesn’t clearly show an awareness and an actual exercise of discretion to treat the offense as one or the other. Reversal is necessary even if there is not “a reasonable probability that [the minor] would have received a more lenient sentence but for the error.”
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