The Maine Supreme Judicial Court agreed with a lower court that a Waldo County teen accused of murder should be tried as an adult.
Atilio Delgado was charged with murder in the shooting death of 49-year-old James Cluney in 2022. He was about to turn 17. A county judge moved Delgado’s case to the adult justice system in April. He could now spend 25 years of life in jail there.
Delgado filed an appeal of that ruling earlier this year.
Delgado has never denied what he did, but his lawyers say he did it without thinking and without planning to. It was said that the shooting was “the result of a complex PTSD response.”
The court said that letting him be tried as a juvenile, which would mean he could get out of jail in a few years, “would be unsafe and would lessen the gravity of the charged offense.” The court also decided that Delgado did not show that he should be tried as an adult.
The court also said that Delgado was 18 years old when the order to try him as an adult was first made.
When called Tuesday evening, Delgado’s lawyer, Jeremy Pratt, refused to say anything about the ruling.
Cluney was a father of five children. About three years before the shooting, he took in Delgado and his brother Pedro after their parents left them. In ninth grade, he quit school and worked at Dunkin’ Donuts and Dairy Queen. The Cluneys drove him to work.
According to court papers, Delgado was abused by his father and then by the boyfriend of his mother until he was about 12 years old. His lawyers have said in the past that he learned to protect himself naturally against loud adult guys.
Cluney is said to have hit his younger brother twice in the head and made his daughter cry before school, which is when Delgato reportedly shot Cluney six times. Court papers say that after the shooting, he ran into the woods and called 911 to say what he had done.
His name was “Ghost Gun,” and he made it himself. Using pre-paid debit cards, he bought the parts for a P80 weapon online and put it together by watching YouTube videos.
It’s not clear when Delgado will go to court again.
Emily Allen, a staff writer, helped with the reporting.
