People in the Interest of A.V

Citations

• 2018 COA 138
• 446 P.3d 887

Syllabus

A.V. was arrested in connection with a series of home and business burglaries. The victim businesses included Animal Attractions Pet Store (Animal Attractions) and the Country Inn Restaurant (Country Inn). Country Inn sustained extensive fire damage in the burglary, and the fire destroyed most of the business. As part of a global case disposition, A.V. pleaded guilty to some counts in exchange for dismissal of other counts, stipulating to a factual basis and agreeing to pay restitution to all victims, including those in the dismissed cases. The juvenile court ordered restitution of $1,000 to Country Inn's owner for the deductible and $681,600 to Country Inn's insurer for the repair work. The juvenile court further found that the loss amounts submitted by Animal Attractions and its insurer in the victim impact statements sufficiently established the victims' losses to order restitution in the amount requested. On appeal, A.V. contended that no facts exist to show that he caused the Country Inn fire and that the prosecution failed to meet its burden of proving proximate cause for these claimed losses. Here, A.V. waived his challenge to proximate cause by (1) stipulating to a factual basis in the plea agreement and at the providency hearing (2) stipulating to pay restitution to the victims of the dismissed counts (in this case the arson count) in the plea agreement (3) agreeing with the prosecutor before the restitution hearing that A.V.'s stipulated factual bases in all cases included a stipulation to causation and (4) asking the court to order $470,874.47 for losses related to the dismissed arson count. A.V. next contended that the juvenile court erroneously ordered him to pay the estimated repair costs to Country Inn's insurer, rather than actual costs incurred to date. Here, the prosecution presented competent evidence of the estimated expenses, which A.V. did not rebut. Therefore, the juvenile court did not err. A.V. also contended that the invoices submitted with