Jose Antonio Delgado didn’t dispute the fact that he fired a gun at a man downtown back in February. But he told the judge in court Monday that it was for a good reason: someone stole his best friend — a dog.
“The dog is my best friend, or like a grandkid to me,” Delgado, 48, told Juneau Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez after the prosecution dismissed his excuse as an unlikely story. “Would you get mad if someone took your grandkid? I would, and I did.”
Menendez sentenced Delgado to five years in prison with two years suspended for the Feb. 24 drive-by shooting.
Prosecutors originally charged Delgado with two counts of felony weapons misconduct and two counts of felony assault. Monday’s sentencing was part of a plea deal that dismissed three of those charges in exchange for a guilty plea to one count of weapons misconduct. Five years of probation was also part of the deal, along with an undetermined amount of restitution for damages caused during the drive-by.
According to a court affidavit, when police arrested Delgado he said he only fired the weapon because he saw someone walking his dog. On Monday in court, he said the bullet was meant to get the man’s “attention.”
Deglado fired the bullet from a car — reportedly driven by Sky Stubblefield, 26 — in the direction of a man walking near Harris Street. The bullet missed the man on the street, but it entered a house owned by Juneau resident James Barrett, where it travelled through his front window, hit a lamp, then landed eight inches away from his head, the affidavit alleges.
Judge Menendez stressed in court that it was only a matter of luck that Delgado wasn’t facing more severe charges.
“It was a bad day for you, but in other ways, it was a lucky day for you,” Menendez told Delgado. The judge also said in court that he lives nearby where the incident took place and was shocked to learn about the dangerous activity in his neighborhood. “That’s not what we do here in Juneau. … I don’t like that and it can’t happen again.”
Barrett and other people present during the shooting opted out of offering a statement to the judge during the sentencing.
Menendez told Delgado — who has 21 prior criminal convictions, including a felony conviction for misconduct involving a controlled substance and seven other convictions of misdemeanor assault — that he believes he has good prospects for rehabilitation. After presiding over seven different hearings involving Delgado, Menendez said he’s seen the man’s demeanor change over time.
“I think you’re tired of this life you’ve been living and you want to change it,” Menendez told Delgado.
Other than talking about his love for his dog, Delgado only spoke when spoken to, but he did make a few jokes whenever the opportunity presented itself. Before he left the courtroom, he told the judge he needed to head back to Lemon Creek Correctional Center because “I got chicken cooking.”
On July 21, Stubblefield was found guilty of second-degree failure to stop at the direction of an officer, a class A misdemeanor. She received the maximum sentence, which is one year in jail.
• Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or paula.solis@juneauempire.com.
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