Is Humberto Delgado Jr crazy? That’s what Psychiatrist Michael S. Maher told jurors last week. Maher said he was legally insane when he shot Tampa police Cpl. Mike Roberts.
However, today when the murder trial resumes today, prosecutors will ask their own question to Maher, hoping to uncover a different conclusion.
Maher is expected to be the last defense witness, and that’s when Prosecutors will begin calling their own mental health experts. Delgado’s attorney’s say they won’t let him.
The Judge, Emmett Lamar Battles, says he hopes to have the case in the hands of the jury no later than Wednesday.
Delgado is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting Roberts on Aug. 19, 2009 after the officer stopped Delgado pushing a grocery cart along Nebraska Avenue, and he could face the death penalty if convicted.
If the jury finds him guilty of first-degree murder, there will be a separate hearing on the appropriate punishment. The jurors would return a recommendation, but it will still be up to Battles to decide what sentence to impose, though he must give great weight to the jury’s findings.
The defense has presented a list of witnesses detailing Delgado’s bizarre behavior from wanting to chop off his children’s feet thinking they were evil to believing the Freemasons and rapper 50 Cent were out to kill him.
Maher testified that Delgado was in a psychotic, delusion state when he shot Roberts, unable to understand what he was doing was wrong.
The psychiatrist said Delgado thought Roberts was part of the “powerful malevolent force” hunting him down.
