Opinion
A89A0464.
DECIDED JUNE 5, 1989.
Child deprivation. Gordon Juvenile Court. Before Judge Williams.
Bailey Bearden, J. Lane Bearden, for appellant.
Darrell E. Wilson, District Attorney, James F. Ledbetter, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
At a juvenile court hearing which had been set solely to determine appellant's status as a deprived child, his counsel sought to interject the issue of delinquency. The asserted delinquent act was appellant's murder of his mother. The juvenile court refused to consider the issue of appellant's delinquency or to conduct a transfer hearing to determine whether appellant should be tried for the murder as an adult in the superior court. It is from these rulings of the juvenile court that appellant brings this direct appeal.
As noted, the juvenile court's rulings on the issues of appellant's delinquency and a transfer for his prosecution in the superior court were made in the context of a deprivation hearing. The record shows that no final written order as to appellant's deprivation has ever been entered. It follows that the deprivation case is still pending in the juvenile court and that any rulings which have heretofore been made in that case are interlocutory. Appellant did not comply with the applicable provisions of OCGA § 5-6-34 (b) and, accordingly, this appeal must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
If, as the record suggests, the issues raised by appellant in this appeal have been rendered moot as the result of his actual criminal prosecution for murder, the issue of whether the superior court has jurisdiction to try him as an adult should now be raised in the criminal prosecution in that court or in a habeas corpus proceeding. See generally Lane v. Jones, 244 Ga. 17 ( 257 S.E.2d 525) (1979); Longshore v. State, 239 Ga. 437 ( 238 S.E.2d 22) (1977); Hartley v. Clack, 239 Ga. 113 ( 236 S.E.2d 63) (1977); Williams v. State, 238 Ga. 298, 303 (2) ( 232 S.E.2d 535) (1977); Relyea v. State, 236 Ga. 299 ( 223 S.E.2d 638) (1976).
Appeal dismissed. McMurray, P. J., and Beasley, J., concur.