Raheem Goodwin, left, looks at Jeremy Pratt, one of his defense attorneys, during his sentencing hearing Friday at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — A Benton man pleaded guilty Friday to stabbing a Fairfield man to death in 2023 and was sentenced to 29 years in prison.

Raheem Goodwin, 23, pleaded guilty to murdering 62-year-old Edwin Weeks at Goodwin’s home. He pleaded not guilty to Weeks’ murder in February, but changed his plea to guilty at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta on Friday, in a deal with state prosecutors.

At the hearing, Weeks’ family members said they believe Goodwin sought to rob Weeks when he assaulted him a couple days before the murder.

Siblings of Weeks, who grew up on a farm in Fairfield Center, said in court he was a hard-working, church going man who gave his time and money to others.

Patricia Cole, one of Weeks’ three sisters who addressed the court Friday, said her brother Eddie, when he was killed, was thinking of taking early retirement so he could finally have more time for camping and visiting with his friends and family.

“He worked hard his whole life, everything he had, he earned, he never had to rob anyone. He believed nothing was worth having if you didn’t earn it yourself,” Cole said, sometimes through tears. “I don’t sleep much anymore. My brother is always on my mind.”

Speaking to Goodwin, who wore a green jail uniform with wrists shackled to his waist, Cole said he had failed in the simple task of honoring his family’s name.

“If you live 100 lifetimes, on your best day,” she said, “you could never be half the man my brother was on his worst day.”

A victim’s advocate read a statement from Marguerite Davis, another of Weeks’ sisters, who said her brother helped care for their late mother when she had cancer, and took her to their Baptist church every Sunday, where he was a deacon. Weeks helped fellow church goers and others plowing the church driveway in the winter and lending or giving money to friends, family, or people in need even though he didn’t make much money.

“To hear of the brutality of the crime was so hard for me,” Davis said in her statement. “He was a hard worker with a heart of gold, a church-going man who would never hurt a fly, or anyone. My children’s hearts are broken, because they loved their uncle. He was taken too soon and this criminal will have to answer to God for what he did.”

Prosecutor Kate Bozeman, an assistant attorney general, said the 29-year sentence is much less than the state would have liked Goodwin to serve, but the plea agreement was a compromise. If the case had gone to trial, she said, there was a chance jurors wouldn’t find beyond a reasonable doubt that Goodwin’s mindset at the time of the murder was to intentionally kill Weeks.

There could have been testimony that Goodwin’s excessive methamphetamine use had the potential to affect his ability to act with intent, she said. And because Goodwin would likely make claims that Weeks abused him — which she said the state didn’t believe — that would be difficult for his family to hear.

Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy presided Friday at the sentencing hearing for Raheem Goodwin. Goodwin pleaded guilty to the 2023 murder of Edwin Weeks in Fairfield and is sentenced to serve 29 years in prison. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

The case had been scheduled to go to trial in May.

Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy acknowledged trial outcomes are uncertain.

“It seems (lawyers for both sides) came up with a resolution that does a number of things. It spares the family from having to hear allegations that would be very painful to hear. It does resolve the case in a way that I think protects public safety. Twenty-nine years on a murder conviction is hard time, and he’s going to spend that time at Maine State Prison.”

Murphy noted if Goodwin went to trial and was found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder, the maximum sentence would be 30 years.

Jeremy Pratt, one of Goodwin’s two lawyers, agreed the plea deal was a compromise and acknowledged the risk to both sides of taking the case to trial.

Goodwin declined to address the court, other than to answer Murphy’s questions about his plea.

The day Weeks’ body was found in November 2023, Goodwin was identified as a suspect.

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

Police said they recovered the knife and other items Goodwin threw out of his car. They also found another bloody knife in a trash container at Riverside Terrace, a Skowhegan mobile home park where Goodwin was staying with his girlfriend, Samantha Joy, when he killed Weeks. Police found Weeks’ DNA in the trash bag Goodwin apparently threw in the trash container, on the knife, on Goodwin’s Air Jordan sneakers, and on a washcloth.

An autopsy 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.

Bozeman said when police first saw Weeks’ body they thought he had been stabbed and shot, because of the condition of his body.

Bozeman said Joy said he confessed to her that he had stabbed and beaten Weeks on Nov. 28, 2023.

Goodwin’s lawyers sought to have items found by police in the trash container excluded from the evidence against him if the case had gone to trial, claiming police found it in an improper search because no search warrant had been sought for the trash container.

Joy told police she saw him bag up the clothing and leave, probably to throw the bag into the trash container, one of seven at the park for use by tenants.

Bozeman previously said police had a search warrant for the mobile home in the park where Goodwin was staying with Joy.

Joy told investigators Goodwin told her he killed Weeks “for his family” and because he thought he was a sex offender.

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

Joy and others told police Goodwin had assaulted Weeks before the killing. She said Goodwin and Weeks “have had sex,” for which she thought Weeks had paid Goodwin. Joy also told police Goodwin’s drug use made him paranoid and he would hear voices.

Goodwin also pleaded guilty Friday to charges of eluding an officer, and refusing to submit to arrest, related to him fleeing from police, and violating condition of release because he was on probation when he committed the murder. His sentences for those crimes will be served concurrently with his murder sentence.