A Portland man pleaded guilty to murder Thursday and will serve 30 years in prison for the death of his father more than four years ago.

Abdallah Al Siraj, 26, entered his plea under a deal with prosecutors. Police said he stabbed his father, 50-year-old Salim Al Siraj, multiple times on Feb. 10, 2022. Police found his father’s body under a pile of clothes in his apartment five days later.

The apartment property manager had called police several days after the killing, after reviewing surveillance footage that showed blood spilling out from under the door of the father’s apartment, Assistant Attorney General Bud Ellis said in court.

Ellis said police later confirmed through testing that it was the elder Al Siraj’s blood. Surveillance footage also showed his son coming in and out of the apartment. Ellis said Abdallah Al Siraj later told police that “something bad happened between him and his father” without elaborating and that he had indicated regretting his actions.

Superior Court Justice Thomas McKeon accepted Abdallah Al Siraj’s plea and the 30-year deal during a brief hearing Thursday afternoon in Cumberland County.

Abdallah Al Siraj has received treatment several times since 2022 at the Intensive Mental Health Unit at Maine State Prison, where he was held pre-trial, McKeon said in court. At one point, his attorneys discussed entering an insanity plea, McKeon said, that would have resulted in him being committed to the state Department of Health and Human Services, rather than prison.

“Have you had sufficient time to discuss that option with your attorneys?” McKeon asked on Thursday. “You understand the pros and cons of that choice, as opposed to pleading guilty today?”

“Yes, your honor,” Abdallah Al Siraj said.

He had been struggling with his mental health leading up to the stabbing, according to an affidavit written by a Portland police detective in 2022. Family members and those who knew him told police at the time that Abdallah Al Siraj had been experiencing delusions and was acting erratically leading up to his father’s death.

No family or other members of the public addressed the court Thursday. Ellis said that a victim witness advocate for police had been in touch with relatives over the last several years and they didn’t wish to attend the hearing.

Abdallah Al Siraj’s sentence includes the roughly four years he has already spent in prison. His defense attorney Ali Brauner and Ellis both noted that he has no prior criminal history.

Abdallah Al Siraj came to the U.S. as a young child, Brauner told the judge. She said he is now a U.S. citizen and attended school in Maine. Some of the hardships he experienced and observed played a role in what happened, Brauner said.

“This is a hard case,” Brauner said after the hearing. “Ultimately what he wanted to do with the case is take responsibility and move forward.”