(Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS) John Delee towers over the court officers escorting him into Superior Court Monday for a bail hearing in Delee's second-degree murder case.

MANCHESTER — John Delee, the Salem man charged with shooting a Manchester man to death in January, “did not act in justifiable self-defense” when he allegedly shot and killed Timothy Pouliot during a confrontation outside a downtown bar, Superior Court Judge Steve Houran wrote Monday.

Houran’s finding, contained in a four-page ruling he issued following Monday’s hearing in which Delee and his attorney argued that he should be released on bail as his case proceeds.

But Houran rejected that claim, writing in his order that state prosecutors have 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 …,” according to the ruling.

Further, Houran wrote that the state, based on the “totality of the evidence presented on the record” at last week’s bail hearing, “has met its burden of demonstrating that Mr. Delee is charged with second

degree murder … the proof is evident that Mr. Delee (allegedly) committed that offense and that he was not justified by self-defense in doing so.

The law, Houran wrote, “mandates that Mr. Delee shall not be allowed bail.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.