A Brooks man was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday for the 2022 murder of his girlfriend’s father when he was 16, after the victim took him in for three years and treated him “as a son” by some accounts.
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The 20-year-old Atilio Delgado was 16 in 2022 when he murdered the 49-year-old James Cluney in his Brooks home.
Delgado accepted a plea deal before to Tuesday’s sentencing, allowing him to plead guilty to manslaughter rather than murder charges, and to face a 25-year prison sentence, rather than the life in prison he could otherwise have faced.
In addition to spending 25 years in prison, Delgado will also be forced to pay just $4,555.32 to cover funeral expenses for the victim and to compensate the victim’s family.
The judge and prosecutors reportedly considered Delgado’s age a mitigating factor, which led to the plea deal and relatively lenient sentence.
“I wish I could go back and talk to myself that day. I would tell myself that the situation wasn’t as serious as I thought it was and that I should walk away,” Delgado said in a court statement.
“I’m so sorry. I can never take back what I did, but I promise to make every day better than the last,” he added.
Cluney, a father of five and a grandfather, had reportedly taken in Delgado and his brother, allowing them to live in his house and supporting them financially for three years prior to the murder.
Delgado was dating Cluney’s daughter at the time of the shooting.
According to Assistant Attorney General Kate Bozeman, the shooting took place after Cluney told Delgado that he had “cuffed” his brother during an argument, which led Delgado to shoot him with an illegally acquired “ghost gun” handgun.
Delgado then reportedly fled into the woods, where he called 911.
The victim’s family reportedly requested that the court impose a longer prison sentence on Delgado, but Superior Court Justice Patrick Larson denied their request.
Initially, Delgado was set to be tried as a juvenile, and was held in Long Creek Youth Development Center, the state’s only juvenile detention center. In 2024, District Court Judge Charles Dow ordered that Delgado be tried as an adult, expressing concerns about public safety if he were tried as a minor.
