A man will spend 11 years behind bars after pleading guilty to a 2011 murder in Portland.
Abdi Awad was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years with all but 11 years suspended followed by four years of probation.
In 2011, Awad shot and killed 41-year-old Allen Patric MacLean at an apartment building on the corner of Congress Street and Massachusetts Avenue. The case went cold for 10 years.
“I heard a gunshot,” a witness said in 2011. “And then I heard a man say, ‘I’m dying.’ And he tried to cross the street and almost got hit by a car. Collapsed on the sidewalk.”
The witness said she held the victim’s hand until he died.
A decade later, in 2021, police announced they had charged Awad with murder. Awad was already serving time for aggravated assault for stabbing a security guard in March 2011, five months before the murder.
Awad pleaded guilty to felony murder earlier this month for killing MacLean.
A person speaking on behalf of Kayla MacLean, Allen MacLean’s daughter, said during Awad’s sentencing: “Seeing you smile in the courtroom hurts us. A piece of us died the day you killed my father. I lost a fishing buddy and a camp guide. My grandmother hasn’t slept a day since you killed him.”
The judge accepted the plea deal and the state and defense agreed to a 30-year sentence all but 11 years suspended followed by four years of probation.
“There are challenges that existed … unfortunately in this case,” Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Ackerman said.
Several professors and staff from the University of Maine System believe Awad has already changed.
“He is one of the most committed and caring students I’ve known,” said Andrew King, the director of graduate studies at the University of Southern Maine.
Former inmates who served time with Awad also spoke on his behalf.
The judge acknowledged Awad’s remorse in accepting the plea.
“I fully accept accountability for my actions and there’s no words to express the pain and the regret I feel,” Awad said.