SKOWHEGAN — A Madison man charged with the murder of a former roommate has instead pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in an unexpected last-minute plea deal with prosecutors.

Roland Flood Somerset County Jail photo

Roland Flood, 63, was charged with murder in the death of Mark Trabue, 57, of Anson, and the case was set for trial next week in Skowhegan. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Thursday.

But Flood instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter Tuesday in exchange for prosecutors’ dropping the murder charge, court records show.

“We were prepared to go to trial,” Flood’s court-appointed attorney, Verne E. Paradie Jr., of the Lewiston law firm Paradie & Rabasco, said Tuesday via telephone. “But when you get an offer that makes a lot of sense for someone, it’s tough to walk away from.”

The plea deal includes an agreement with prosecutors on what sentence Flood will serve, Paradie said.

Paradie declined to disclose the details, but he said: “It involves Mr. Flood having the opportunity to get out of prison … while he’s still relatively young.”

Flood’s sentencing hearing has been set for 9 a.m. May 6 at the Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan, court records show.

Paradie said he and prosecutor Lisa R. Bogue, an assistant attorney general, were working on a plea agreement all day Monday. They came to court in Skowhegan on Tuesday during jury-related administrative business when they finalized the agreement, he said.

“There had been talk about a manslaughter plea,” Paradie said. “The amount of time was really what was hanging us up.”

The manslaughter charge states that Flood “did recklessly or with criminal negligence cause the death of” Trabue.

This is the second time Flood’s trial has been called off at the eleventh hour.

Jury selection for his first scheduled trial began in late October 2024. A flurry of motions related to evidence and  alternative suspects delayed that trial until May.

Flood has been held with bail denied at the Somerset County Jail in Madison since his arrest Sept. 1, 2023. A grand jury indicted Flood in October 2023 on a charge of intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder, and he pleaded not guilty.

Trabue’s body was found with multiple stab wounds July 8, 2023, at Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, according to Maine State Police. An autopsy the next day by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed multiple stab wounds, and Trabue’s death was ruled a homicide.

Flood and Trabue were acquaintances, according to court filings. Flood had been in a romantic relationship with a woman, Susan Viles, who lived with Trabue on Ingalls Street in Anson, state police Detective Jillian Monahan wrote in the affidavit supporting Flood’s arrest.

Viles told detectives she broke up with Flood and kicked him out of the room she rented from Trabue about a month before the alleged murder, the affidavit says.

Court filings from police and prosecutors suggest that two men had an argument a few days before the alleged murder. Flood threatened Trabue during that argument, but later he said the comment was a joke, according to the affidavit.

Police said they later found six knives while executing the search warrant. None of them tested positive for blood, according to the affidavit.

Police also said they found a belt they believed to belong to Flood at a friend’s residence where he was staying. The Maine State Police Crime Lab determined blood on the belt matched Trabue’s DNA profile, court filings say.

Several issues related to evidence that could have been presented at trial have played out in the last year.

Superior Court Chief Justice Robert E. Mullen, who has presiding over the proceedings in Flood’s case, ruled that Flood’s attorneys could not introduce evidence related to several alternative suspects and allowed prosecutors to introduce photographs of knives they believe belonged to Flood.

Mullen also allowed six police interviews of Flood to be used as evidence at trial, ruling that his statements were voluntary.

This story will be updated.