WHEATON, Ill. (CBS) — A former soldier from Wheaton accused of murdering a neighbor three years ago is asking a DuPage County judge to allow him to use a long-ago traumatic military experience as a defense.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports, the Daily Herald reports Michael Delaney’s attorney argued that even if his client wasn’t defending himself, he believed he was defending himself because of the lingering effects of a military training exercise in 1982, during which eight soldiers were killed and 150 were injured.

Delaney is accused of stabbing his neighbor, Michael Scalzo, to death in June 2009, during a confrontation involving Delaney’s girlfriend, who had just left him. The stabbing happened outside Scalzo’s apartment building on Crescent Avenue in Wheaton, the newspaper reported.

Prosecutors are fighting the defense. They point out that Delaney has tried unsuccessfully to get benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder for 26 years, the Daily Herald reports.

The Daily Herald reports the judge will decide later this month whether he will allow the defense.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports