Supreme Court of Missouri / Oct 26, 2021
State ex rel. T.J., Relator, vs. The Honorable Terry Cundiff, Respondent.
T.J., a seventeen-year-old, was charged with three felony offenses in the court of general jurisdiction. He sought a writ of prohibition, arguing that the juvenile division had exclusive jurisdiction under the 2018 "Raise the Age" legislation. The Missouri Supreme Court quashed the preliminary writ, holding that the 2018 legislation, which expanded juvenile division authority to include seventeen-year-olds, did not become effective until July 1, 2021, due to a funding contingency. Therefore, at the time of T.J.'s alleged offenses on January 4, 2021, he was considered an adult, and the general jurisdiction court properly retained authority.