Aaron Aldrich (WMTW).
A Maine man convicted of shooting a man and a teen, taking their money, and posing for a selfie will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Aaron Aldrich, 47, learned his fate on Friday in the deaths of 16-year-old Mohamed Aden and Mohamed Adan, 21. Aldrich was convicted in the case in September.
Maine Superior Court Judge Jennifer Archer took the defendant to task, local ABC affiliate WMTW reported.
“These young victims were someone’s son, father, sibling, grandson and friend, and their lives were cut short by the selfish act of a greed-filled man,” Archer said.
Victim advocate Brian Hughes talked about the impact the slayings had on the families, saying Aden’s mother described the funeral process practiced in her culture, which includes a washing of the body, The Lewiston Sun Journal reported.
“Just being there for that, seeing her son in the manner he was left in with the injuries, how difficult that was and how hard it has been to overcome that grief and depression,” Hughes said.
Aldrich’s attorney, Thomas Carey, tried to argue for a 60-year sentence, noting his drug addiction and remorse.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about what happened,” said Aldrich, who testified on his own behalf during the trial, saying he was ambushed and it was self-defense. “I’m really sorry. I know it doesn’t make it right, and I know it doesn’t bring them back.”
The victims were shot in a drug deal at a home on Tripp Lake Road in Poland on Feb. 20, 2023. Their bodies were found the following morning during a welfare check, local NBC affiliate WCSH reported.
Citing court documents, WMTW reported that a woman tipped off police that Aldrich had left her house the night of the killings and returned to her home around midnight, acting paranoid, and looking out windows. The witness told police she noticed what appeared to be blood on Aldrich’s shoe and a cut on his wrist. The woman left around 2 a.m. When she got back, Aldrich was gone and later texted her a picture of himself and the words “I did a thing.”
He was arrested days later in New Hampshire, held on unrelated charges, and extradited to Maine to face charges in the double murder.
At trial, prosecutors said he used a Hi-Point 995, 9 mm rifle in the killings and posed for photos holding cash and bloody evidence, The Sun Journal reported.
“I killed those two. I flanked them. I flogged them,” Assistant Attorney General Lisa Bogue told the jury – quoting what Aldrich later told a witness. “He has found weaker, smaller, younger boys that he can go and take from.”
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