AUBURN — A judge has denied an attempt by an Auburn man to have his statements to police suppressed in the shooting deaths of two people last year in Poland.

At a hearing last week in Androscoggin County Superior Court, a lawyer for Aaron Aldrich, 47, cross-examined one of the state police detectives leading the investigation into the deaths of Shoeb Mohamed Adan, 21, of Springfield, Massachusetts, and Mohamed Aden, 16, of Lewiston on Feb. 21, 2023.

Aaron Aldrich Androscoggin County Jail photo

Their bodies were found at a mobile home at 205 Tripp Road  by Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office deputies who were called to the address for a welfare check.

Aldrich was indicted last year on two counts of intentional or knowing murder, each punishable by 25 years to life in prison.

The trial is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Monday in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

In his motion to suppress, Aldrich claimed he was never read his Miranda rights by state police Major Crimes Unit Detective Justin Huntley and that he “specifically invoked his right to an attorney before detectives continued to speak with him,” his attorney, Thomas Carey, wrote in the complaint.

Justice Jennifer Archer denied both complaints.

“Because the defendant’s statements were freely and voluntarily given, and Det. Huntley neither interrogated the defendant nor engaged in conduct that was the functional equivalent of interrogation, the Court finds that a Miranda warning was not required,” Archer wrote in her decision.

On Feb. 24, 2023, Huntley met with Aldrich at the New Hampshire State Police barracks in Bedford, New Hampshire. Cellphone records indicated that he was at The Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire, and he was considered a person of interest in the Poland slayings after being identified by informants.

Aldrich was arrested for outstanding warrants not associated with the Poland case.

Huntley said he was working on a case in Maine and wanted to ask Aldrich a few questions about where he was on a particular day and time.

“It depends about what it’s about because usually I don’t even talk until I talk with my lawyer. I don’t even know what this is about,” Aldrich is heard talking on a tape recording of the New Hampshire meeting.

When told that authorities were investigating the Poland deaths, Aldrich said “I’m an ice dealer. I’m not a …”

When told he could tell police what he wanted to, he responded, “I’m good, like I’ll wait until I talk with a lawyer then … I haven’t killed anybody, I know that.”

Huntley stopped asking about the case at that point, turning his attention to duties such as extradition.

Archer ruled that the defendant’s statement, “‘I don’t even talk until I talk with my lawyer,’ was not an unambiguous invocation of his right to counsel. His expressed words and tone of voice make clear that he is referring to the presence of counsel during his prior interactions with law enforcement rather than expressing a present, contemporaneous intent to consult with an attorney.”