Poland murder suspect has long criminal history

Aaron Aldrich in 2012 talks about a life of crime and his attempts to go straight. Sun Journal file photo

POLAND — Those who know Aaron Aldrich the best said he’s been in trouble with the law since his earliest days.

Court records bear that out.

Now charged in a double homicide in Poland last week, the 46-year-old Aldrich’s criminal history spans decades, as well as several areas of the Maine landscape.

From the mid-1990s when he became a legal adult, Aldrich has been convicted of a long string of crimes, including numerous thefts, burglaries, drug possession, robbery, reckless conduct with firearms and other charges in three counties.

In 2003, he was one of three people charged with robbing The Big Apple store in West Paris, a crime that ultimately got him seven years behind bars.

Some people who have known Aldrich since his youth said these charges stem from his longtime involvement in drugs and the culture of crime that goes with it. Some said he was mostly a thief — just not a very good one.

Aldrich has been in and out of prison his entire adult life, according to the court records. That trend didn’t change in the weeks and months leading up to the killings in Poland.

In September 2022, Aldrich was charged with a slew of crimes, including reckless conduct with a firearm, assault on an officer and possession of fentanyl, in Westbrook.

In recent months, he has also been charged numerous times — in Oxford, Androscoggin and Cumberland counties — with violating conditions of release, which typically means a return to jail.

Yet, on Feb. 7, just days before the killings on Tripp Lake Road in Poland, Aldrich was out and about, only to be arrested by Lewiston police and charged with three counts of failing to appear in court and refusing to submit to arrest.

He was released shortly after that arrest, too. And not long after, police said, he killed a man and a teenager at a mobile home in Poland.

Maine State Police, investigating the killings, have not described Aldrich’s relation to the two people he is accused of murdering.

Mohamed Aden, 16, of Lewiston and Shoeb Mohamed Adan, 21, of Springfield, Massachusetts, were found dead Feb. 21 in a home at 205 Tripp Lake Road by Androscoggin County Sheriff’s deputies conducting a welfare check.

Police caught up with Aldrich in New Hampshire days later, and charged him with two counts of murder. On Tuesday, he was being held at the Rockingham County Jail in Brentwood, New Hampshire, awaiting extradition to Maine.

A CHANGED MAN?

Those who know Aldrich speak about him only reluctantly and only on the promise of anonymity. Several said they are afraid of him, even though Aldrich is locked up and charged with crimes that may put him away for decades.

As a teen, his intimates said, Aldrich spent time at state youth centers after being charged as a minor with various crimes. Once he turned 18, he entered the adult system and began to serve jail and prison time on a regular basis.

“It was always stealing and drugs,” one longtime acquaintance said. “He could not stop stealing, even from family.”

In 2012, Aldrich described himself as a victim of addiction; a misunderstood tattoo artist whose criminal record was a hindrance to living an honest life.

He learned carpentry in prison, Aldrich told a Sun Journal reporter. He got a welding certificate, but once free, he was unable to get a job or to get a license to open a tattoo parlor in Lewiston.

At the time the article was published, Aldrich was 35 and claimed to be a changed man.

“Ten years ago I was a very different person,” he said. “I was a drug addict. I was a thief and an alcoholic. I’m not trying to deny that, but currently I’m a productive citizen of Lewiston and Auburn, and I haven’t been in a stitch of trouble.”

And it appears that Aldrich did stay out of trouble for a time after his release from prison in 2010. His criminal history doesn’t pick up again until 2019 when he was charged with possession of crack cocaine. After that, more trouble quickly followed, including new and numerous charges of thefts, burglary, criminal mischief and various other crimes.

Aldrich has also been known to use the name Aaron Trebilcock, according to court records. Over the years, he’s listed addresses in several jurisdictions, including Portland, Auburn, Turner, South Paris and Oxford.

At the time of his arrest in the Poland killings, Aldrich was living on Cottage Road in Lewiston.

Details in the double homicide on Tripp Lake Road remain murky. The mobile home where the killings occurred is owned by a New Gloucester couple, but the trailer was supposed to be unoccupied. There was also no word on how the 16-year-old Mohamed Aden was connected to the 21-year-old from Springfield, Massachusetts.

On Monday, Maine State Police said, Aldrich waived extradition. He is expected to be brought to Maine at the start of next week when he will be held at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.