Confessed killer says 'I'm sorry' to family of Elsmere man stabbed to death in 2006

Nearly two decades after 61-year-old Paul Clayton was found stabbed to death inside his Elsmere home, the confessed killer stood before his family and apologized.

“I’m sorry I took the love of your life away from you,” Timothy Delehanty said during his Aug. 12 sentencing in Kenton County Circuit Court.

Delehanty was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for Clayton’s killing, as well as the attempted murder of a fellow inmate at the Kenton County Detention Center. His arrest early this year was prompted by an unlikely confession 17 years after Clayton’s killing.

He pleaded guilty in May to numerous charges, including murder, but that deal nearly fell apart when Delehanty tried to withdraw his plea at the last minute.

Here’s what to know about the case and why Delehanty, 37, tried to pull back his guilty plea.

Police: Delehanty cited 'overwhelming desire' to kill

Clayton was found dead at his Eagle Drive home in December 2006. Prosecutors say he was lying on the floor of his living room, which was covered in blood, and the residence had been ransacked.

Delehanty was quickly identified as a person of interest but wasn’t charged in connection with the killing until January when he admitted stabbing Clayton 50 to 60 times before fleeing in the slain man’s vehicle.

At least one witness told police that Delehanty had been driving Clayton’s 1996 Ford Thunderbird, according to earlier Enquirer reporting.

Police at the time said Delehanty "rented" the car to a 16-year-old, who was later found asleep inside the vehicle in Covington. Delehanty was identified in a lineup and arrested for receiving stolen property.

The case went cold for the better part of 20 years until Delehanty was stopped by police while trying to leave the St. Elizabeth Hospital in Covington with an IV still in his arm. He told the officers that he was responsible for Clayton’s death, according to a criminal citation.

At the time of the killing, Delehanty, then 19, was living at a trailer park in Elsmere with his mother just a few doors down from Clayton, Detective Nick Klaiss said during a hearing early this year.

When asked during an interview about why he stabbed Clayton, Delehanty responded that he had “ this overwhelming desire to go kill him ," Klaiss said, adding that Delehanty was able to recall details that only someone at the scene would know.

Delehanty tries to go back on plea, prosecutors warn of death penalty

Despite Delehanty’s confession to police, he originally planned to mount a mental health defense at trial, according to Stephen Florian, who previously served as Delehanty’s public defender.

Florian testified that Delehanty’s defense would’ve largely surrounded his state of mind in 2006, adding that his mental health history showed no signs of psychosis at the time.

While preparing to proceed to trial, Florian said, Delehanty reached out saying that he wanted to resolve his cases, which also included the charges from the jail assault.

Florian said he pushed in plea negotiations for a recommended sentence of 25 to 30 years, while prosecutors wanted life in prison. They eventually settled on life sentences for both cases with those running concurrently.

“At the outset, I was hopeful for a term of years because he came forward and confessed, and I had never really dealt with that before, especially so long after the fact,” Florian said.

Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders said his office would've pursued the death penalty or life without parole if Delehanty’s case went to trial.

While awaiting his sentencing, however, Delehanty, indicated that he wished to pursue a mental health defense despite the possibility of the death penalty.

He then hired a new attorney, Jeffrey Lawson, who said that Delehanty had little time to prepare a defense, didn’t fully understand his possible defenses and felt pressured to plead guilty in light of his case possibly being elevated to a capital prosecution.

Judge Kate Molloy ultimately denied Delehanty’s request to withdraw the guilty plea, finding he did so “knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently.”

Lawson declined to comment on the case when reached by The Enquirer.

'A painful loss'

“Timothy Delahanty is the kind of criminal maximum security prisons were built to hold. He appears to do whatever he can to inflict as much pain on other people as possible, whether that be attacking them in jail, or trying to go back on his guilty plea for a horrific murder,” Sanders said in a statement.

While Delehanty’s prison sentence puts an end to the Clayton family’s nearly 20-year wait for justice, his loved ones remain haunted by the brutality of his death.

“To say my dad was murdered is an understatement,” Jennifer Parker, Clayton’s daughter, wrote in a statement read aloud in court by a relative. “He was mutiliated, so badly in fact, we were unable to have an open casket at his funeral.”

“It changes everything in you,” Parker wrote of her father’s killing. “It is a painful loss that is felt every single day.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Confessed killer says 'I'm sorry' to family of Elsmere man stabbed to death in 2006