Police: Connecticut man charged with murder worked at Fryeburg Fair with stabbing victim

Oct. 15—The Connecticut man charged with stabbing a fellow worker to death early Wednesday morning at the Fryeburg Fairgrounds allegedly was fighting with the victim after a night of drinking when the stabbing occurred, according to a police affidavit.

Carlos A. Negron, 46, is charged with intentional or knowing murder in the death of Anderson Gomes, 28, of Waterbury, Connecticut.

Negron allegedly told police that he did not remember stabbing Gomes and that the fight was "a blur."

Both men, along with witnesses interviewed by Maine State Police detectives, worked at the fair and were housed at the fairgrounds, according to the affidavit. The fair ended Sunday.

Witnesses told police that just before he was stabbed Gomes was drunk and angry that he was not one of the workers given a ride back to Connecticut earlier in the day, the affidavit said. He got into a fight with a male coworker after Gomes allegedly struck the coworker's girlfriend.

A man who was among the witnesses police interviewed allegedly said that Gomes was on top of him and he could not get up when Negron came out of nowhere, "scooped Gomes up and started punching him." The witness did not realize Negron was stabbing Gomes, the affidavit said.

Negron admitted to police that he carried a knife with a blade that comes out when you push a button, according to the affidavit. He admitted to leaving the scene of the stabbing and throwing the knife into a field, where police found it.

The Office of the Chief Maine Medical examiner determined that Gomes died of multiple stab wounds, according to the affidavit.

Negron made his first court appearance Friday morning remotely in a courtroom in Portland from the jail in South Paris.

He was not asked to enter a plea because he has not yet been indicted by the Oxford County grand jury.

He has been held there since his arrest at about noon Wednesday.

Superior Court Justice Thomas McKeon ordered that Negron be held without bail as the law requires in murder cases.

Defense Attorney Verne Paradie of Lewiston said he might ask for a bail hearing in the future.

Police found Gomes' body on the ground outside a restroom facility when they were called to the fairgrounds for a report that a man had been stabbed. Gomes was dead when police arrived, according to the Maine State Police, the agency that investigates most homicides in Maine.

If convicted, Negron faces between 25 years and life in prison.