MANCHESTER, NH – John Delee, accused in the shooting death of a Manchester man outside The Goat last month, has no legal defense to shooting someone in response to a punch in the face, a judge has ruled.
Delee, 22, of Salem, is charged with second-degree murder and reckless conduct. He is accused of recklessly causing the death of Timothy Pouliot, 24, of Manchester on Jan. 28, 2023, shooting him eight times.
Presiding justice Steven M. Houran issued the order on Feb. 27, 2023, after a hearing last week in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District. It means Delee will not get bail and will remain jailed, pending trial.
The judge said it is uncontested, for the purpose of the bail hearing, that Delee shot Pouliot who died from the eight gunshot wounds. The issue was if Delee acted in self-defense and Houran said he did not.
The judge summarized the events leading up to the shooting that night. Delee and his friends, identified as Mr. Soldano and Mr. Chandler, were all at The Goat nightclub on Old Granite Street that night. So were Pouliot and his friends, Mr. Mendoza and Mr. Nash. Also at The Goat was a friend of Delee’s, Ms. Elliott-Orr and two of her friends.
According to Elliott-Orr, Pouliot and one of his friends were “a little too close” to her and her friends. Elliott-Orr said Delee and Pouliot had some “heated words,” then shook hands and Pouliot walked away.
Later, Elliott-Orr overheard Pouliot say he could punch “that big kid over there,” meaning Delee, in the face and knock him out with one punch, and that he was a professional fighter.
She also heard Mendoza say he was going to knock him (Delee) out before the end of the night. Elliott-Orr told Delee what she heard. Delee flashed his gun and said, “I’m not worried, I have protection.”
Delee later approached Pouliot at the bar where they exchanged words for over half a minute. A person who was talking to Pouliot said that during this exchange Delee challenged Pouliot to go out and fight. At the end of the exchange, Delee pushed Pouliot and bouncers intervened and escorted Delee away.
Less than two minutes later, Mendoza approached Delee and punched him in the face; the two wrestled onto the floor. During this altercation, Delee sustained a visible cut to the face. Bouncers intervened and escorted Mr. Delee out of The Goat. While Delee was being escorted out, and after he reached the sidewalk, he was visibly agitated, repeatedly and loudly yelling words to the effect, “who punched me, who punched me in the face,” and “I’ll fight you.”
Delee and his two friends were on the sidewalk to the right of the entrance to The Goat, when Pouliot came out of the club and walked away to the left. Mendoza and Nash also exited the club, but they crossed the street, and got into a car.
Nash, smoking a cigarette, then exited the car and crossed the street toward Delee and his friends. Delee and Nash exchanged words, and Delee punched Nash.
They exchanged a few more words, then Delee offered to shake Nash’s hand.
Nash declined, and Delee punched him a second time.
At no point did Nash resist or fight back.
At that point, Mendoza had exited the car and crossed the street to approach Delee and his friends. Mendoza pointed a pepper spray canister at Delee, who pulled a gun out of his waistband. He dropped it, picked it up and “racked” it. From the video, it does not appear that he pointed it at Mendoza who had backed off. Delee’s friends pushed him, escorting him away, north up the sidewalk.
Delee reached the alley to the north of the SoHo nightclub. By then, he had put the gun back into his waistband. The alley led to the parking lot where Delee and his friends had left their car. Delee walked down the alley, but then started walking back, drew the gun, then put the gun away again. One of his friends pushed him to get Delee to walk down the alley toward the car.
Meanwhile, Mendoza and Nash had followed Delee and his friend to a location across from the alley entrance. At the same time, Pouliot had reversed direction and, despite Elliott-Orr’s efforts to stop him, and Mendoza yelling “he’s got a gun,” walked back past The Goat to approach Delee and his friends near the entrance to the alley.
A bystander, using a cell phone, video recorded Delee, Pouliot and at least three of Delee’s and Pouliot’s friends standing in a rough circle. What was being said cannot be heard, but Pouliot is plainly seen punching Delee in the face. Delee immediately raised his gun and fired multiple shots into Pouliot. Delee then walks down the alley with his gun still out, but then turns back, with the gun put away and puts his hands up in the air.
After he was arrested, Delee said, “Those kids tried to fight us for some reason” and “is there some legal defense to getting punched in the face, I just reacted” and “I can’t believe I just f—-d everything up.”
Houran wrote that just as Mendoza’s punch to Delee inside The Goat would not have reasonably justified the use of deadly force by Delee in defense; just as Delee’s first punch to Nash on the sidewalk would not have reasonably justified the use of deadly force by Nash in defense; just as Delee’s second punch to Nash on the sidewalk would not have reasonably justified the use of deadly force by Nash in defense; “Pouliot’s punch to Mr. Delee near the entrance to the alley did not reasonably justify the use of deadly force by Mr. Delee in defense.”
The judge said notwithstanding Pouliot’s earlier assertion overhead by Elliott-Orr that he was a professional fighter and that he could knock Delee out with one punch that “it does not appear that Mr. Delee who was a foot taller than Mr. Pouliot and outweighed him by around 200 pounds—was fazed by Mr. Pouliot’s punch.”
The judge concluded that “based on the evidence presented at the Feb. 24, 2023 hearing, the State has shown by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Delee could not have reasonably believed that Mr. Pouliot was about to use deadly force against him and that, accordingly, Mr. Delee did not act in justifiable self-defense when he shot Mr. Pouliot.”
