ALFRED – The day after a second suspect was arrested in connection with the murder of a Biddeford man two years ago, police issued an alert saying they are now looking for a third man in connection with what they described as a drug-related shooting.

Mohamud Mohamed, 21, whose last known address was Kennedy Park in Portland, is being sought on a murder charge, according to Maine State Police. Mohamed was recently released on bail from Cumberland County Jail on a number of unrelated charges.

John Lopez, 20, of Old Orchard Beach, was ordered held without bail Wednesday after being arrested Tuesday on a murder charge in the 2013 shooting in Biddeford.

Lopez appeared in York County Superior Court in Alfred before Justice Paul Fritzsche for his initial appearance on the charge after being arrested on a warrant.

Lopez and another suspect, Bub Peter Nguany, are accused of shooting to death 47-year-old Charles Raybine as he sat in a rental car in a Biddeford parking lot on March 26, 2013, in an incident that prosecutors have described as drug related.

Nguany was arrested in 2013 within hours of the shooting. Authorities have given no explanation why they waited until now to charge Lopez in the same murder.

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Lopez, dressed in a blue button-down shirt and tie, said nothing during the brief hearing as he stood beside his attorney, Robert Ruffner, and was led out with handcuffs still on after the hearing to return to the York County Jail.

Assistant Attorney General John Alsop, who is prosecuting both cases, declined to say whether he would seek to have Lopez and Nguany tried at a single trial or separate trials. Nguany’s trial had been scheduled to start next week until it was delayed recently to an uncertain future date.

Ruffner said he could not speculate why authorities decided to charge Lopez now and that the arrest came as a surprise to his client, who contends he was not involved in Raybine’s death.

“It really points to they really didn’t have the evidence they think they have now two years ago, which can only be in my client’s favor,” Ruffner said outside the courthouse after the hearing.

Alsop declined to comment as he left the courthouse with another prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Crockett, and state police Detective Lauren Edstrom, the lead investigator.

Raybine’s widow, Lori Raybine, sat quietly with other family members during the court hearing and spoke briefly to the media afterward to say how thankful she was for the prosecutors, state police and the court system.

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“I’m really grateful for the step in the right direction,” Lori Raybine said of Lopez’s arrest.

All court papers in Lopez’s case remained under seal by the judge’s order other than a single-page complaint outlining the basic details of the murder charge against him.

Lopez will remain held without bail until a potential bail Harnish hearing, but Ruffner said it is too early to say when he may request such a hearing. The next step in the case will be for the prosecution to present their allegations against Lopez to a grand jury.

Nguany was arrested within hours of Raybine’s death as he tried to leave his Old Orchard Beach home in a taxicab. An Old Orchard Beach police officer had arrested Nguany two days earlier in a traffic stop and matched his description with one of Raybine’s killers given by a witness.

Immediately after the shooting, police were called at 1 a.m. on March 26 to Parish Place Apartments in Biddeford, where they found Raybine, 47, shot several times in the face with a .45-caliber handgun.

Police said Raybine was known to abuse drugs and, based on witness statements, was smoking crack cocaine and drinking while playing cards in an apartment at 41 Birch St. in Biddeford.

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At one point during the night, Raybine, who lived elsewhere in Biddeford, and his nephew, Morgan Palmer, went outside and sat in Raybine’s car, though a state police affidavit does not say why. Two cars pulled up, one on either side of the parking lot.

Palmer told police that a man got out of the passenger seat of one of the cars, a dark Toyota Prius, and walked over to Raybine’s car. Palmer described the man as 6 feet tall, 175 to 200 pounds, black, wearing a baseball cap and dark jacket, and possibly a hooded sweatshirt, according to the affidavit, filed in court in connection with the case by state police Detective Kristopher Kennedy.

The man pointed to Palmer and asked, “Yo, who you with, who’s this?” the affidavit says. Raybine answered, “That’s Mo.” The man then fired a gun at Raybine’s face.

An autopsy showed that Raybine died of multiple gunshots to the head and neck.

Palmer ran away after the shooting and called 911. Old Orchard Beach police Officer Scott Jarrett heard the report describing the suspect and recalled arresting Nguany just two days earlier, when he was driving a rented Prius with New York license plates.

In that arrest on March 24, Nguany was pulled over in a traffic stop on Saco Avenue in Old Orchard Beach. He was charged with two felonies – illegal possession of a firearm and aggravated operation of a vehicle after his license had been revoked as a habitual offender.

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During his arrest after Raybine’s killing, police seized bags of crack cocaine from Nguany and found a .45-caliber pistol and ammunition in his backpack, according to the affidavit.

Nguany was initially charged with two counts of aggravated drug trafficking and illegal possession of a firearm from the second arrest. He was later indicted on a charge of murder.

Nguany has pleaded not guilty to all the charges from both arrests. Lopez was not required to enter a plea on Wednesday, since he has not yet been indicted.

Police asked that anyone with information about Mohamed call 657-3030.

Scott Dolan can be reached at 791-6304 or at:

sdolan@pressherald.com

Twitter: @scottddolan


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