The Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld a lower court’s decision to try a Waldo County teenager accused of murder as an adult.

Atilio Delgado was about to turn 17 when he was charged with murder in the shooting death of 49-year-old James Cluney in 2022. In April, a county judge decided to move Delgado’s case to the adult justice system, where he could face 25 years to life in prison.

Delgado appealed that decision earlier this year.

Though Delgado never denied the act, his lawyers have argued that he acted impulsively and unintentionally. They framed the shooting as “the result of a complex PTSD response.”

But allowing him to be tried as a juvenile, which could mean his release in a few years, “would be unsafe – and would diminish the gravity of the charged offense,” the court said in its decision. The court also found that Delgado did not prove that trying him as an adult would be inappropriate.

The court also noted that Delgado was 18 at the time of the original order to try him as an adult.

Jeremy Pratt, Delgado’s attorney, declined to comment on the decision when reached by phone Tuesday evening.

Cluney was a father of five who took in Delgado and his brother Pedro roughly three years before the shooting, after the two boys had been abandoned by their parents. He dropped out of school in ninth grade and worked jobs at Dunkin and Dairy Queen; the Cluneys drove him to work.

Court records state that Delgado suffered abuse from his father and later his mother’s boyfriend until he was about 12 years old. His attorneys have previously claimed that he learned to instinctively defend himself against loud adult men.

He allegedly shot Cluney six times after the older man hit his younger brother twice on the head and caused his own daughter, who Delgato at one pointed dated, to cry before school. After the shooting, he ran into the woods and dialed 911 to report his actions, according to court documents.

Delgado used a “ghost gun,” which he built himself. He bought the parts for a P80 handgun with prepaid debit cards online and assembled it using video instructions on YouTube.

It’s not clear when Delgado will next appear in court.

Staff Writer Emily Allen contributed reporting.