5 days ago
Door-to-door salesman, 'enamored' with knives, gets 20 years in Jackson man's death
TOMS RIVER - Despite a door-to-door salesman's continued claims he was defending himself during an altercation with a Jackson homeowner in 2022, a judge sentenced him May 29 to 20 years in prison for plunging an unlawful, double-sided dagger with serrated blades through the victim's carotid artery, killing him.
In imposing the prison term on Michael Tsamas for the aggravated manslaughter of Joseph Delgardio, Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan noted Tsamas, 35, of Laurence Harbor, admitted that he regularly armed himself with two daggers for protection.
Tsamas used one of the unlawful weapons as a first rather than last resort during a physical altercation with Delgardio, 44, who was unarmed and smaller than the younger Tsamas, Ryan said.
"It's a weapon of last resort, when you're literally on the brink of death," the judge said of the dagger.
Tsamas, despite his claims of self defense, "resorted to it first," Ryan said.
Tsamas would have been justified in shoving or punching Delgardio, but not using deadly force, the judge said.
"If someone pushes or shoves you, you can't shoot him, you can't stab him in the neck,'' Ryan said.
Tsamas stood trial before Ryan in March. The jury rejected his claim of self-defense and found him guilty of aggravated manslaughter and weapons offenses
The deadly scuffle occurred on May 26, 2022, after Tsamas paid a sales call to Delgardio's home on West Veterans Highway in Jackson as the victim, his wife and two of their three daughters were having dinner.
Jaime Delgardio, the victim's wife, testified during the four-day trial that Tsamas told them he worked for Verizon and offered them a $100 gift card and a discount on their monthly electric bill.
Jaime Delgardio testified she became suspicious that Tsamas was trying to scam them, so she and her husband asked the salesman to leave. Tsamas did, but not before the Delgardios gave him their Jersey Central Power & Light Co. account number, Jaime Delgardio testified.
Minutes later, she said her husband went out to look for Tsamas in order to retrieve their account number.
When she went to look for her husband, Jaime Tsamas said a police officer intercepted her and informed her he had died in a fatal altercation up the street.
Key evidence introduced at the trial was a 19-second video of the incident at West Veterans Highway and Conor Road that an unidentified person recorded and posted to SnapChat.
It showed Tsamas, instead of defending himself with two hands during the scuffle with Delgardio, reaching one hand behind his back to grab the dagger and remove it from its sheath before plunging it into the victim's neck, Ryan noted.
Tsamas did not testify at the trial, but the jury viewed a police body-camera video on which Tsamas told an officer Delgardio had threatened to kill him.
Before Tsamas was sentenced, he described "being trapped and having someone tell me multiple times they were going to kill me.
"I felt my life was in danger, there was nothing more to it than that,'' Tsamas said.
"I'm deeply sorry for how all this ended,'' he said.
Ryan clarified that Tsamas told police during a taped interview after the altercation that Delgardio said he would kill him if he got a bill in the mail.
"That's not an immediate threat of death or serious injury,'' Ryan said.
"It wasn't a death threat,'' the judge said. "It was at best the type of thing people do when they get frustrated.
"The defendant is the architect of this situation,'' Ryan said. "The defendant is the one who caused this to escalate to deadly force.''
Tsamas, in addressing the judge before sentencing, reiterated he regularly carried the two daggers for protection.
In a 10-page letter to the judge, Tsamas expressed interests in the Second Amendment right to bear arms, survival and emergency preparedness, Ryan said.
He also expressed concerns about "violence in society and the need to protect himself,'' the judge said.
In the letter, Tsamas told the judge he preferred double-edged blades "to give my life the greatest fighting chance to survive,'' Ryan said.
"You're not camping in the woods, you're not fighting off bear,'' Ryan told the defendant. "You're walking door-to-door.''
The judge told Tsamas a small can of pepper spray would have been the appropriate thing for him to carry for self defense.
"This defendant is enamored with these bladed instruments and resorted to them far too fast,'' Ryan said.
Delgardio bled to death from the neck wound, which severed his carotid artery and cut into his vertebrae, Ryan said.
"Because of this man, I can never have my father back,'' Gabriella Delgardio, one of the victim's three daughters, told the judge.
"This man stole every moment of time I can have with my dad,'' she said. "Why should he get off with a light sentence when he stole a father from his family?''
The victim's widow described her husband as "a hard-working, simple man'' and "someone you could count on.''
She said he was peaceful and did not deserve to die.
"Joe was a good man, a loyal husband and I can't begin to tell you how amazing he was to our kids,'' Jaime Delgardio said.
Victoria Veni, an assistant Ocean County prosecutor who tried the case with Assistant Prosecutor Meghan O'Neill, asked the judge to sentence Tsamas to 25 years in prison.
Defense attorney Chip Dunne asked the judge to impose the minimum sentence of 10 years.
The maximum term for aggravated manslaughter is 30 years.
In sentencing Tsamas to 20 years in prison, Ryan ordered that he serve 85 percent of the term before he can be considered for release on parole, under the state's No Early Release Act.
Ryan also rejected a motion for a new trial, put forth by the defense attorney.
"This is the epitome of self-defense,'' Dunne argued. "The jury misinterpreted the facts. They missed the ball on this case.''
Dunne also said a new trial was warranted because one of the jurors fell asleep during the case.
Ryan said that should have been brought to his attention during the trial so that the juror could be questioned and possibly replaced with an alternate.
The judge also said he kept a close watch on the jurors during the trial and did not see any of them fall asleep.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Salesman gets 20 years in Jackson man's stabbing death
