WISCASSET – Jon Dilley, who was found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting deaths of his mother and estranged wife, was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in prison.
Dilley, of Pittston, was convicted in May of two counts of manslaughter for the deaths of his mother, Sarah Murray, who was 71, and his wife, Chevelle “Chellie” Calloway, who was 41.
The shootings took place on Aug. 21, 2004, in front of Dilley and Calloway’s children after an argument at Murray’s summer home in Boothbay Harbor.
Thursday in Lincoln County Superior Court, Justice Donald Marden sentenced Dilley to two consecutive 30-year terms, the maximum allowed.
During the three-hour hearing, Marden heard from family and friends of the victims, as well as Dilley’s brother and a friend of Dilley’s. Dilley also spoke, telling Marden it saddened him to bring his children such pain, but that he was misunderstood.
Dilley, 53, initially was charged with murder, but evidence presented during his trial suggested that during the shootings he was in a state of “depersonalization,” which prevented him from forming the necessary criminal intent for a murder conviction. The jury convicted him of the lesser charges of manslaughter.
Prosecutors were seeking a 60-year sentence for Dilley. In a sentencing document submitted to Marden, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese described the crime as “domestic violence in the extreme.”
According to testimony during his trial, Dilly went to the trunk of his car and retrieved a gun, then shot his way through a glass door into Murray’s home.
Dilley’s daughter, Emma Dilley, said her mother crouched on the living room floor with her arms over her head as her father shot her. Jon Dilley then ran to the kitchen, where he shot his mother as she fled out a back door. Both women died at the scene.
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