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                                                                                                     Tuesday   11th
December,  2001.
Antoine Spain,                                                                                                 Appellant,
against                                                                      Record No.  1434-00-1
Circuit Court No. CR95B00580-00
Commonwealth of Virginia,                                                    Appellee.
From the Circuit Court of the City of Norfolk
It appears that this Court does not have jurisdiction over
this case.    Accordingly, the opinion previously rendered by this Court
on May  8,  2001 is withdrawn and the mandate entered on that date is
vacated.    This Court's orders entered on November  15,  2000 and June
21,  2001 are also vacated and case hereby is transferred to the
Supreme Court of Virginia pursuant to Code  §  8.01-677.1.    Commonwealth
v. Southerly,  ___ Va.  ___,  551 S.E.2d  650  (2001).
A Copy,
Teste:
Cynthia L. McCoy, Clerk
By:
Deputy Clerk




                                                                                                  Thursday   21st
June,  2001.
Antoine Spain,                                                                                               Appellant,
against                                                                   Record No.  1434-00-1
Circuit Court No. CR95B00580-00
Commonwealth of Virginia,                                                 Appellee.
Upon a Petition for Rehearing
Before Judges Bray, Bumgardner and Senior Judge Hodges
On May  22,  2001 came the appellee, by the Attorney General
of Virginia, and filed a petition praying that the Court set aside the
judgment rendered herein on May  8,  2001, and grant a rehearing
thereof.
On consideration whereof, the petition for rehearing
is granted only insofar as it pertains to Issue II raised in the said
rehearing petition, the mandate entered herein on May  8,  2001 is
stayed pending the decision of the panel, and the appeal is reinstated
on the docket of this Court.
The respondent shall file an answering brief within  14 days
of the date of entry of this order.    No additional oral argument will
be heard in this matter.
A Copy,
Teste:
Cynthia L. McCoy, Clerk
By:
Deputy Clerk
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COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
Present:    Judges Bray, Bumgardner and Senior Judge Hodges
Argued at Chesapeake, Virginia
ANTOINE SPAIN
OPINION BY
v.    Record No.  1434-00-1                                                       JUDGE RICHARD S. BRAY
MAY  8,  2001
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF NORFOLK
Charles E. Poston, Judge
(Robert J. Wagner; Wagner & Wagner, on brief), for
appellant.    Appellant submitting on brief.
Michael T. Judge, Assistant Attorney General  (Mark
L. Earley, Attorney General, on brief), for
appellee.
Antoine Spain  (defendant) appeals an order of the trial court
denying his motion to vacate prior convictions for second degree murder,
malicious wounding and two counts of using a firearm in the commission
of such offenses.    Defendant was a juvenile when he committed the
crimes, and the prosecutions had been transferred to the trial court by
the Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court  (J&D court)
upon a "Waiver of Transfer Hearing and Preliminary Hearing" executed
pursuant to Code  §  16.1-270.    Relying upon Baker v. Commonwealth,  28 Va.
App.  306,  504 S.E.2d  394  (1998), aff'd per curiam,  258 Va.  1,  517 S.E.2d
219  (1999), and its progeny, defendant contends that both the J&D and
trial courts acted without the requisite subject matter jurisdiction,
resulting in void convictions.    We agree and reverse the trial court.
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I.
On November  1,  1994, petitions were lodged in the J&D court
alleging defendant committed the subject offenses on October  25,  1994,
when seventeen years of age.    The Commonwealth moved the J&D court to
transfer the prosecutions to the circuit court pursuant to Code
§  16.1-269.1, and a related hearing was scheduled for February  16,
1995.    Defendant appeared at the hearing, accompanied by his attorney
and mother, but his father had not been notified of either the
original petitions or related proceedings and did not appear.
At the inception of the hearing, defendant executed a document
entitled, "Waiver of Transfer Hearing and Preliminary Hearing,"
"freely and voluntarily waiv[ing] Preliminary hearing" and "Transfer
Hearing" before the J&D court, thereby "agree[ing] that the  .  .  .
charges  .  .  . be transferred to the circuit court."    The waiver was
"certif[ied]" by the J&D court judge and, accordingly, the
prosecutions were transferred to the trial court, where defendant
suffered the instant convictions.
On November  11,  1999, defendant unsuccessfully moved the trial
court to vacate the convictions, asserting that, absent issuance of a
summons to his father at the inception of the prosecution in
accordance with Code  §§  16.1-263 and  -264, the J&D court lacked
jurisdiction over the proceedings, rendering void the waiver of a
transfer hearing and related convictions in the trial court, an
argument defendant pursues on appeal.    The Commonwealth counters that
Code  §  16.1-270 creates an exception to the necessity of parental
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notification, permitting a waiver of "statutorily created subject
matter jurisdiction."
II.
Code  §  16.1-241 confers upon J&D courts "'exclusive original
jurisdiction' over 'all cases, matters and proceedings involving' a
juvenile who is alleged to be delinquent."    Moore v. Commonwealth,  259
Va.  431,  437,  527 S.E.2d  406,  409  (2000).    "All matters alleged to be
within the jurisdiction of the  [J&D] court shall be commenced by the
filing of a petition," Code  §  16.1-260, and "[a]fter a petition has
been filed, the court shall direct the issuance of summonses  .  .  . to
the parents  .  .  .                                                            ."    Code  §  16.1-263.1    Companion Code  §  16.1-264
prescribes the mode and proof of service necessary to such summonses.
"We have held that 'compliance with  [Code  §§  16.1-263 and
-264] relating to procedures for instituting proceedings against
juveniles,  [is] mandatory and jurisdictional.    The failure to strictly
follow the notice procedures contained in the Code  [deny the
defendant] a substantive right and the constitutional guarantee of due
process.'"    Weese v. Commonwealth,  30 Va. App.  484,  489,  517 S.E.2d
740,  743  (1999)  (quoting Karim v. Commonwealth,  22 Va. App.  767,  779,
473 S.E.2d  103,  108-09  (1996)  (en banc)); see Baker,  28 Va. App. at
310,  540 S.E.2d at  396.2    Thus, "where a  [J&D] court conducts a
1 Although inapplicable to the instant proceedings, effective July
1,  1999, Code  §  16.1-263 was amended to direct "issuance of summonses"
to "at least one parent."    See  1999 Va. Acts, c.  952.
2 Although also inapplicable here, Code  §  16.1-269.1(E)
"provide[s] that, as to offenses committed on or after July  1,  1996,
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delinquency proceeding without notifying the parents or certifying
that notice cannot reasonably be obtained, a resulting conviction
order is void."    Duong v. Commonwealth,  34 Va. App.  424,  428,  542
S.E.2d  47,  49  (2001).    In Moore, the Court instructed that such
mandated statutory notice is not subject to waiver.                             259 Va. at  440,
527 S.E.2d at  410-11.
Here, the Commonwealth correctly reminds us that Code  §  16.1-270
provides that "[a]t any time prior to commencement of the adjudicatory
hearing a juvenile  .  .  .  , with the written consent of his counsel,
may elect in writing to waive the jurisdiction of the  [J&D] court and
have his case transferred to the appropriate circuit court."    However,
contrary to the Commonwealth's argument, such waiver provisions relate
to transfer and do not dispense with the statutory notice necessary to
confer subject matter jurisdiction upon the J&D court at the inception
of the proceedings.    See id. at  437,  527 S.E.2d at  409.    Manifestly, a
waiver permitted by Code  §  16.1-270 is predicated upon the existence
of authority in the J&D court to act and cannot cure an antecedent and
fatal defect in the underlying jurisdiction.    See Langhorne v.
Commonwealth,  35 Va. App.  19,  24,  542 S.E.2d  780,  782  (2001).
once an indictment has been returned in the circuit court, any failure
to comply with the parental notification provisions of Code
§§  16.1-263 and  -264 does not deprive the court of subject matter
jurisdiction."    Carter v. Commonwealth,  31 Va. App.  393,  394-95,  523
S.E.2d  544,  545  (2000).
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Accordingly, we reverse the trial court and remand for such
further proceedings as the Commonwealth may deem appropriate.
Reversed and remanded.
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