MANCHESTER, NH – Judge N. William Delker, in sentencing John DeLee, 23, of Salem to 30 years to life in prison in the shooting death of Timothy Pouliot last year outside a downtown bar, said the shooting happened because Pouliot was a man who refused to back down when confronted by a bully – DeLee – who outweighed him by nearly 200 pounds.
What preceded the shooting on Jan, 28, 2023 happened inside The Goat Bar and Grill on Old Granite Street. Delker said Pouliot, 24, of Manchester, had “the gall” to talk to DeLee’s ex-girlfriend. After DeLee confronted Pouliot about it, Pouliot and a friend began talking to her again and bragging.
“That was too much for you,” Delker told DeLee. When his friend hit him, “you went into a rage. You were spoiling for a fight. And just like a bully, you hid behind a gun.”
DeLee fired eight rounds into Pouliot to send a message that “no one was going to stand up to John DeLee and live to tell that tale,” Delker said.
Delker, presiding in Hillsborough County Superior Court North on Friday, viewed a video of a fight between DeLee and another inmate at the Valley Street jail that occurred two days earlier.
According to court documents, at breakfast on March 6, 2024, DeLee saw an extra breakfast tray in the common area where inmates were seated having breakfast. DeLee started walking over to the tray but another inmate grabbed it before him. DeLee approached the inmate and shoved him. The other inmate then hit Delee with the tray and a fight broke out. Both inmates sustained facial cuts and one of them, prison guards couldn’t recall who, suffered a split lip.
DeLee, when interviewed by jail staff, admitted the fight was over a food tray and “basically said he’s a big guy and was hungry and the other inmate is small and “can live off snacks.’”
“You beat the heck out of that guy,” said Delker.
Delker also said he didn’t believe DeLee was remorseful. The judge said in the letter DeLee wrote to him, he said he was “sorry for what happened” but didn’t take responsibility or say exactly what he did.
In the Hillsborough County Superior Court North courtroom on Friday, however, DeLee did apologize to the Pouliot family.
“I just want to say I am sorry to Timmy’s family,” he said.
Delker sentenced DeLee to 27 years to life on the second-degree murder charge and credited him with 406 days of pre-trial confinement. He was given a 3 to 6-year consecutive sentence on the reckless conduct charge. Delker said “it was a miracle” no one else was injured given the number of people outside the club that night.
If he is of good conduct for the next 15 years, the 3-to-6-year sentence would be suspended, that is, the minimum sentence would become 27 years.
The sentencing came after family members and friends of Pouliot gave emotional victim statements which brought many to tears in the packed gallery. Family and friends of both Pouliot and DeLee, along with about a dozen Manchester police officers and Hillsborough County deputies filled the seats.
Alan Pouliot spoke of his “beloved son” who was killed in a “barbaric execution.” He said anyone who met Timothy fell in love with his positive energy and passion for life. He was inspiring and had a selfless love for people.
“I will never be able to see him again here on earth, but I will see him again at the rapture of the church or in heaven when I die. I can’t wait for that day. It will be the happiest day of my life,” he said. Timothy, he told DeLee, was a born-again Christian.
DeLee maintained he shot Pouliot in self-defense, that it was three-on-one, and that Pouliot and his two friends had set him up for a beating.
Pouliot was killed outside The Goat Bar and Grill, 50 Old Granite St., just before 1 a.m. on Jan. 28, 2023. The shooting followed several incidents inside and outside the bar involving DeLee, Pouliot and Pouliot’s friends, Michael Mendoza, 40, and Trenton Nash, 22.
That night, Delee intended to meet Abigail Elliott-Orr, his former girlfriend, and two of her friends at the bar.
Inside the club and from a distance, DeLee saw Pouliot talking to Elliott-Orr. Delee went to the dance floor where, with a handgun in his waistband, he called Pouliot a derogatory name.
Pouliot laughed off the name-calling, shook hands with DeLee and left the area. Elliott-Orr and her friends then left DeLee and went to the bar where Pouliot and Mendoza were sitting.
Pouliot offered to buy her a drink.
Pouliot and Mendoza bragged about being professional MMA fighters. Pouliot said he thought he could take DeLee.
Elliott-Orr and her friends went back to DeLee and told him what Pouliot and Mendoza had said, that they wanted to knock him out and that they were professional fighters.
DeLee became irate and confronted Pouliot, challenging him to a fight outside. Ultimately, DeLee shoved Pouliot. A bouncer pulled DeLee away from Pouliot.
When asked why he pushed Pouliot, DeLee said because Pouliot called him a “bitch.”
Pouliot, whispered something in Mendoza’s ear, and Mendoza, who wore big rings, hit DeLee in the face, cutting him. Both DeLee and Mendoza were thrown out of the club.
As he was led out by bouncers, DeLee was screaming and swearing, “Who punched me in the face? Come fight me. Come fight me.”
According to the prosecution, Mendoza and Nash headed to Mendoza’s car, while Delee was outside on the sidewalk, still angry and still looking for a fight. “Fuck you. Who punched me? Why?” he screamed.
Pouliot left the bar soon after, heading in the opposite direction of DeLee and his friends.
DeLee’s friends tried to calm him down but he became more agitated, according to prosecutors.
Nash got out of his car to talk to DeLee and his friends. DeLee, she said, hit him twice in the head. Mendoza then got out of the car and, standing on a snowbank, pulled out pepper spray and pointed it at DeLee.
DeLee, in turn, pulled out his handgun, dropped it and picked it up again; Mendoza ran, along with Nash, to the Bank of America parking lot. Elliot-Orr screamed for DeLee to put the gun away and his other friends tried to get him to leave.
They started down an alley leading to the lot at Market Basket where DeLee had parked, but DeLee turned and went back to Old Granite Street.
Pouliot ran up to him and punched him in the face, an act described as a sucker punch by the defense. It was the second time that night, the defense said, that DeLee had been sucker-punched.
Delee pulled out his gun and fired it 9 times, straight at Pouliot, striking him eight times: once in the hand, five times in the back, once in the shoulder and another in the armpit.
DeLee left Pouliot in the street to bleed out and die, according to prosecutors.
