Teen convicted in 1994 of murder headed back to Shelton for a second resentencing

A Mason County Superior Court judge did not follow state law in 2016 when he resentenced a man for a gruesome 1993 murder committed as a juvenile, the state Supreme Court ruled, sending the case back to Shelton for a second resentencing.

The unanimous decision last month by the high court’s nine justices, upholding a lower court ruling, concluded that Judge Daniel L. Goodell‘s findings made when he sentenced Cristian Delbosque to 48 years to life were not supported by “substantial evidence.”

Prosecutor Michael Dorcy said that Delbosque, now 43, will be returned to Mason County to be sentenced again for the murder in Shelton of 16-year-old Kristina Berg, but he did not know exactly when it would take place.

Delbosque was also convicted of second-degree murder for the death of his friend Filiberto Sandoval, but that conviction was overturned in 2002.

“It’s hard to drag a family back through that again,” Dorcy said. “There is a lot of it that is practically challenging, contacting everybody, and it is hard emotionally.”

The resentencing ordered by the state Supreme Court follows the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miller vs. Alabama, which found automatic life sentences for juveniles violate the Constitution's prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The decision found that, in light of advancements in brain research, juveniles are less able to foresee the consequences of their actions compared with adults, among other findings. Further, the court found juveniles cannot automatically be sentenced to life without first considering their ability to be reformed.

Judge 'oversimplified and sometimes disregarded' evidence

Delbosque was convicted in 1994 of aggravated first-degree murder and was sentenced to life without parole, the only sentence available, as juveniles could not be sentenced to death.

When resentencing Delbosque, Goodell found that: “The brutal murder that Mr. Delbosque committed in October of 1993 was not symptomatic of transient immaturity, but has proven over time to be a reflection of irreparable corruption, permanent incorrigibility and irretrievable depravity.”

State justices found that Goodell relied on the facts of the 1993 murders and Delbosque’s attempt at trial to blame his girlfriend — actions taken more than 20 years before the resentencing — and a prison infraction in 2010 for attempting to arrange an assault that did not result in criminal prosecution.

In doing so, review courts found that Goodell “oversimplified and sometimes disregarded” evidence that showed Delbosque suffered a childhood marked by abuse, loss and addiction. Evidence showed Delbosque had taken steps in prison to reform himself — like taking a parenting class — despite not being eligible for substance abuse treatment and anger management programs because of his life sentence.

Delbosque had one infraction since 2010, in 2016, when he didn’t report to a mandatory medical callout and instead reported to his prison job, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie said.

The Supreme Court noted that Goodell’s decision came before the benefit of two later court rulings that clarified sentencing for juveniles after the Miller decision, State vs. Ramos and State vs. Bassett. However, the justices' ruling upheld a 2018 Division II Court of Appeals decision that ruled Goodell's sentence invalid.

“While the superior court clearly understood what it was required to consider, its findings demonstrate that it failed to meaningfully consider the evidence within the proper context of the diminished culpability of youth” as required by state law, the appellate judges found.

Writing for the high court's majority, Justice Mary Yu said justices had "continually recognized" children are different from adults for the purpose of sentencing.

"We also recognize that trial judges face an extraordinarily difficult task when determining whether a child's crime is a reflection of transient immaturity or permanent incorrigibility," Yu wrote.

'I get very angry'

On the night of Oct. 18, 1993, about three months before his 18th birthday, Delbosque was at an apartment drinking with Sandoval, a childhood friend, when a fight broke out, perhaps over money. During the fight, Delbosque, armed with a .25-caliber pistol, shot and killed Sandoval.

Berg, a girlfriend of Sandoval’s brother, was in the apartment at the time and ended up in the restroom, possibly in an attempt to get away from Delbosque.

It is believed that Delbosque kicked the door down and shot Berg once in the leg but then the gun jammed. Delbosque, using a meat cleaver, hacked at Berg 68 times, nearly severing her head from her body. Delbosque then stripped the two bodies and arranged them on top of each other as though they were having sex and wrote a fake suicide note.

Though at trial Delbosque tried to blame his girlfriend for the murders, after his arrest he gave a confession to police.

"Yeah, I get very angry,” Delbosque told investigators, according to documents filed by Mason County prosecutors. “I don't know what I do when I get very angry.”

Kitsap County cases affected by Miller

The Mason County case follows two Kitsap County sentences affected by the Miller decision.

Michael Furman, originally sentenced to death for the 1989 rape and murder of Ann Presler, 85, in Port Orchard was resentenced in 2018 to 48 years to life. Furman was 17 when he killed Presler. In 1993, Furman's death sentence was converted to life without parole when the state Supreme Court struck down capital punishment for juveniles.

Gabriel Gaeta was sentenced in 2018 to 40 years to life for the 2014 rape and murder of 6-year-old Jenise Wright, a neighbor in the East Bremerton mobile home park where their families lived. Gaeta was 17 when he killed Jenise.