PORTLAND, Maine — Three men charged in relation to the March 2013 murder of Charles Raybine in Biddeford have pleaded guilty to charges recently at Cumberland County Superior Court.
Mohamud Mohamed pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder on Monday and was sentenced to seven years, with all but three suspended, according to an email from Timothy Feeley, a spokesman for the Maine attorney general’s office.
Also Monday, Bub Peter Nguany pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy to murder charges. On Friday, John Lopez pleaded guilty to felony murder.
Sentencing for Nguany and Lopez will occur at a later date, said Feeley.
During the early hours of March 26, 2013, 47-year-old Raybine was shot in the face three times while sitting inside a rental car in the parking lot of the Parish Place apartment complex on Birch Street. Police believe the murder was drug related.
Police arrived about 1 a.m., after Raybine’s nephew Morgan “Mo” Palmer called 911, according to a state police affidavit.
Palmer told police he and Raybine had been playing cards, drinking and smoking crack in one of the apartments, according to the affidavit.
Palmer told police that when they left the apartment and got into Raybine’s rental car, they saw two cars drive up to the parking lot. A black man reportedly got out of one of the cars, approached Raybine and asked, “Yo, who you with, who’s this?”
Raybine responded, “That’s Mo,” and then the man shot him in the face, Palmer told police.
Nguany of Old Orchard Beach was arrested the morning of the shooting as he attempted to leave an apartment on East Grand Avenue in Old Orchard Beach in a taxi, according to police reports. Police searched his backpack and found .45-caliber handgun with ammunition matching shell casings recovered from the crime scene.
Mohamed, a transient from Portland, and Lopez of Old Orchard Beach were charged in April 2015.
Mohamed’s attorney, Thomas Hellet, said his client has already served 1½ years in jail and will be released in another 1½ years.
“Fundamentally, my client is on the periphery of all this,” said Hellet. “He had, I thought, a pretty solid defense.”
However, when faced with a potential sentence of up to 30 years, the plea agreement was a deal they shouldn’t refuse, he said.