AUBURN — A Lewiston man charged with the murders of a man and a juvenile at a Poland home last year reportedly gave his ex-girlfriend a bag of bloody clothing and a gun to dispose of after the slayings, according to court records.
Details of the fatal shootings of Shoeb Mohamed Adan, 21, of Springfield, Massachusetts, and Mohamed Aden, 16, of Lewiston emerged after a police report establishing probable cause for the arrest of 47-year-old Aaron Aldrich was made public this week.
Aldrich was indicted by an Androscoggin County grand jury on two counts of intentional or knowing murder, each punishable by 25 years to life in prison.
He also was charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Aldrich has denied those charges.
Aldrich was in court for a scheduled bail hearing Tuesday, but the hearing had to be rescheduled after attorneys agreed one of the witnesses should be appointed a lawyer before testifying.
A woman who was with Aldrich in New Hampshire five days after the Feb. 20, 2023, shooting said he had confessed. Brittany Manzo, 36, told police Aldrich claimed he had acted in self-defense.
The two victims had been found Feb. 21, 2023, by police who were dispatched to a mobile home at 205 Tripp Road in Poland for a welfare check.
Officers discovered the body of Aden on the living room floor and Adan’s body on the floor of a different room, according to a nine-page affidavit written by Maine State Police Detective Victoria Knight.
Aden appeared to have been shot in the arm, back and chest, Knight wrote. Spent shell casings from what appeared to have been a 9 mm gun were found near the body; casings that appeared to be the same caliber were found near Adan’s body.
A medical examiner would later rule the two victims died from gunshot wounds.
Police spoke with Aldrich’s ex-girlfriend, Brandi Frost, 34, of Lewiston who said she had broken up with him on Feb. 21, 2023.
She said Aldrich had left her home on Feb. 20, 2023, at roughly 10 p.m. and hadn’t return until midnight Feb. 21, “acting paranoid and looking out the windows” and appeared to have blood on one of his shoes and a cut on his wrist, Knight wrote.
Frost left for a couple of hours. When she returned, Aldrich was gone. An hour later, he texted her a photo of his face and wrote, “I did a thing,” but didn’t elaborate.
She said a 9 mm gun Aldrich usually kept at the home was missing; Frost had loaded that gun’s magazine.
A new, yellow, electrical generator Frost had put in her shed also was missing. Aldrich had told Frost he intended to sell it. She had told him to leave it alone, Knight wrote.
Using information from Frost, police retraced the location of Aldrich’s cellphone to the mobile home in Poland on the night of Feb. 20, 2023.
On Feb. 24, 2023, Aldrich’s phone was tracked to The Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire.
Police in Brunswick said they suspected Aldrich had stolen items from a Lowe’s store in that city, then stole a Ford van with Maine license plates from the store’s parking lot on Feb. 22, 2023.
Two days later, Aldrich was spotted in the parking lot of a Macy’s store at the New Hampshire mall. He was seen going in and out of a van fitting that description. Its license plates were registered to a pickup truck.
That evening, a New Hampshire police tactical team was deployed at the mall. Aldrich fled from the parking lot, down a flight of stairs while holding what appeared to be a pistol, Knight wrote.
He entered the lower level of the mall, where he was taken into custody.
The jacket he wore had red/brown stains that police believed were from dried blood.
A search of the mall parking lot turned up a loaded Glock 9 mm pistol. Also found in the snow was a 20-round 9 mm magazine, Knight wrote.
Police interviewed Manzo, who was with Aldrich in New Hampshire. She told police Aldrich told her he had known the shooting victims because he had sold them a generator Feb. 19, 2023, the day before they were killed.
The victims reportedly called Aldrich to complain that the generator wasn’t working.
While staying in a hotel room after the shootings, Aldrich reportedly told Manzo about the incident and became emotional. He said had been threatened over the generator.
When Aldrich went to the Poland home to confront the victims, one of them had a gun and Aldrich shot him, fearing he would be shot, he reportedly told Manzo, Knight wrote.
Then Aldrich shot the second victim because he “couldn’t leave him,” Manzo told police.
She said Aldrich told her the victims had planned to hire him to “take somebody out,” Knight wrote.
But, when Aldrich learned the proposed target was a woman with a baby, he refused, he told Manzo, who told police.
That point was apparently raised during or after the argument over the generator, Aldrich told Manzo. She told police she noticed Aldrich had $2,000.
Manzo said she had seen Aldrich with an “AR-15” gun in addition to the handgun he had with him in New Hampshire, according to the affidavit.
She said she believed Aldrich had been introduced to the victims by Frost, Aldrich’s ex-girlfriend.
On Feb. 26, 2023, Frost told police she had a bag that Aldrich had left with her.
He had told her to, “destroy it” and that “it could never be found,” she told police.
In the bag were clothes and a gun, she said.
Police found a Hi-Point 995, 9 mm rifle with an empty magazine, two shoes and several pairs of pants. They noticed that much of the clothing had red/brown stains “consistent with the appearance of dried blood,” Knight wrote.
Frost told police that she had noticed blood on Aldrich’s shoe on the night of Feb. 20, 2023.
When confronted, Aldrich reportedly said: “It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to know. The less you know, the better.”
He told her not to tell anyone, then threatened her, she told police.
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