Police: Fairfield death ruled a homicide, suspect arrested after lighting car on fire following chase

Traffic passes crime scene tape wrapped around a tree Thursday near a cluster of mobile homes extending from Main Street in Fairfield. The body of 62-year-old Edwin Weeks was found Tuesday in one of the homes. Maine State Police announced Friday that Raheem Shamar Goodwin, 22, of Benton, has been charged in Weeks’ death. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

FAIRFIELD — A 22-year-old man from Benton was charged Friday with murder in the death of a man whose body was found earlier this week at a home off Main Street in Fairfield.

Edwin Weeks, 62, was found dead by a friend on Tuesday at 247A Main St., according to a news release issued Friday by Shannon Moss, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Fairfield tax records show Weeks owned the mobile home in which he was found.

The state medical examiner’s office in Augusta completed an autopsy on Weeks and determined the cause of death was “sharp force trauma,” according to Moss. Maine State Police are still investigating the case.

Raheem Shamar Goodwin Photo courtesy of Somerset County Sheriff’s Office

In the hours after Weeks’ body was found, Raheem Shamar Goodwin was identified as a person of interest and Moss said detectives attempted to pull over a vehicle driven by Goodwin in Skowhegan later Tuesday. Goodwin, traveling on U.S. Route 2 toward Canaan, was being pursued when he intentionally drove the car off the road and into a ditch, Moss said. He then barricaded himself inside and refused to exit. Goodwin eventually lit the interior of the car on fire before he was taken into custody, according to Moss.

He was booked into the Somerset County Jail in Madison on Wednesday. He was being held without bail Friday on charges that also include eluding an officer and violating conditions of release.

Moss said “Goodwin and Weeks were familiar with each other” but she did not elaborate.

Somerset County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell said Friday that he had no additional details and that the case was being handled by state police. Moss declined to comment further beyond the details provided in the release.

Fairfield police also deferred questions to state police, and after the Morning Sentinel earlier asked to review a call log or incident log from Tuesday, a Fairfield officer said the documents had been secured by state police. Officers also declined to provide information about whether police had ever been called to Weeks’ home before.

Goodwin was previously arrested in June 2020 on charges of burglarizing a marijuana dispensary in the town of Rome. State troopers said at the time a second attempted burglary occurred at a dispensary in Belgrade.

Goodwin, who was 19 at the time, was arrested along with another 19-year-old. Both were charged with burglary, theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, and criminal mischief before being booked at the Kennebec County Jail with bail set at $8,000 each.

The Fairfield killing comes amid a surge of homicides and accidental deaths across the state, making November one of the most violent months in Maine’s history. At least eight homicides occurred in November. An analysis of statewide data shows that 2023 is on pace to be the state’s deadliest year since 1989, even without counting the 18 people killed in the Lewiston mass shooting.