A jury found Humberto Delgado, Jr. guilty of killing Tampa police Corporal Mike Roberts in August 2009. Today he will learn whether he’ll get the death penalty.
Delgado was convicted last November for the murder and the jury voted 8-4 recommend the death sentence.
It all started when Corporal Roberts confronted Delgado, who had been seen pushing a shopping cart full of what later turned out to be weapons down a street in the Sulpher Springs area of Tampa.
Delgado’s lawyers say he’s mentally ill because he was diagnosed as being bi-polar and that he had delusions that rapper 50-Cent was out to get him and Juan Cruz, Delgado’s second cousin and a St. Croix Police Officer, said Delgado threatened to hurt his own young son and daughter. He said in the stand, “He told me the kids had goat feet and that was evil, and he wanted to chop the legs off.”
Delgado, himself, is also a former police officer from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
