Suspect in Fairfield murder pleads not guilty

Traffic passes crime scene tape wrapped around a tree Nov. 30 near a cluster of mobile homes extending from Main Street in Fairfield. The body of 62-year-old Edwin Weeks was found in one of the homes. Maine State Police charged Raheem Shamar Goodwin, 22, of Benton, in connection with Weeks’ death. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel file

SKOWHEGAN — The man accused of murdering a 62-year-old Fairfield man pled not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday.

Raheem Goodwin

Raheem Goodwin, 22, of Benton, was indicted by a Somerset County grand jury last month on a charge of intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder, according to court records.

Goodwin said “not guilty, sir,” when asked by Chief Justice Robert E. Mullen to enter a plea on the murder charge. Goodwin, who is being held at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison, appeared in Somerset County Superior Court via video conference.

Prosecutors allege that Goodwin killed Edwin Weeks in Weeks’ Fairfield home on Nov. 28. His body was found at the Main Street home that afternoon.

An autopsy conducted by the state Office of Chief Medical Examiner found that Weeks died of “sharp force injuries,” according to an affidavit filed in court by a Maine State Police detective. The autopsy found multiple stab wounds on Weeks’ chest, side, back and neck.

A motive for the murder remains unclear, though Goodwin’s girlfriend told investigators that Goodwin believed Weeks was a sexual offender and that Weeks had previously paid him for sex, according to the affidavit.

Weeks’ name does not appear in a search of Maine’s public online sex offender registry.

The girlfriend, Samantha Joy, also told police that Goodwin’s drug use made him paranoid and hear voices, the affidavit says.

Several acquaintances of Weeks told investigators that they heard from Weeks that Goodwin had assaulted him just days before the alleged murder, but Weeks did not report the incident to authorities.

The day Weeks’ body was found, Goodwin was identified as a suspect and arrested following a police chase that ended in a crash and subsequent standoff on U.S. Route 2 in Canaan, according to the police affidavit.

During the standoff, Goodwin threw a knife with blood on it off the side of the road, police say. He also set a fire inside his vehicle.

Police later found clothing, sneakers, knives and latex gloves — all with blood on them — at a trailer park on Pineview Avenue in Skowhegan, where Joy and Goodwin lived, according to the affidavit.

If convicted, Goodwin faces a minimum sentence of 25 years to life in prison, which is set by state statute. Goodwin also is facing lesser charges related to the police chase that led to his arrest and probation violations.

A tentative trial date for the murder charge has been set for February 2025, according to court records.