AUGUSTA (WGME) – An Auburn man was acquitted of murder Wednesday in the 2019 shooting of 41-year-old Jean Fournier in a Walmart parking lot.
The last time there was a not guilty verdict for a homicide case in Maine was about three years ago.
It’s a rare outcome that’s left Fournier’s family shocked and heartbroken.
“I have to try to get through the rest of my life knowing my dad’s not here, and then knowing the man that shot him is still walking these streets,” Fournier’s daughter Dominique Gowen said.
It’s been a long two years for Gowen.
“It’s been hard,” Gowen said. “I miss him. I miss him a lot.”
Her father was shot twice in the back in the Auburn Walmart parking lot by 23-year-old Gage Dalphonse.
On the surface, Gowen says it should have been an open and shut case, but a jury disagreed, ruling Dalphonse acted in self-defense.
“Devastated. Completely devastated,” Gowen said.
Gowen wasn’t prepared for the outcome.
“I had to run out of the courtroom. I couldn’t even be in the courtroom anymore because I was just shocked,” Gowen said. “My dad wasn’t a bad guy. My dad wasn’t a harmful man.”
“While I certainly sympathize with the Fournier family and I wish them no ill will, this happened not because of Gage Delphanse, this happened because of Jean Fournier’s conduct,” defense attorney James Howaniec said.
Gowen was hoping the verdict would bring her closure.
“I had held onto that for the last two years, knowing that we’ll get justice, and now I don’t have that to hold onto anymore,” Gowen said.
After the verdict, Dalphonse reunited with his parents for the first time in two years.
“He was able to come back out into the court room and he immediately hugged his mother and his father,” Dalphonse said.
“He got to hug his family yesterday,” Gowen said. “I never get to hug my dad again.”
The family says they don’t plan to take any further legal action.
They’re now trying to find closure any way they can.