SKOWHEGAN — A Madison man who pleaded guilty late last month to manslaughter is set to serve at least 9½ years in prison for the 2023 killing of his former roommate.

Roland Flood, 63, was sentenced Tuesday morning at the Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan.

The formal sentencing came a week after Flood struck what a judge called an 11th-hour deal with prosecutors just before jury selection for a trial was set to begin. Flood, who had been charged with murder in the death of Mark Trabue, 57, of Anson, instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

As part of the agreed-upon plea deal, Flood was sentenced to 18 years in prison, with all but 9 1/2 years suspended, and four years of probation.

The partially suspended sentence means if Flood violates his probation, he could be required to serve the remaining years of the prison sentence.

Terms of his probation include having no contact with certain people involved in the case and no use or possession of alcohol, illegal drugs, firearms and dangerous weapons. Flood was also ordered to pay $1,820 in restitution.

Superior Court Chief Justice Robert E. Mullen accepted and imposed the sentence that both prosecutors and Flood’s attorneys recommended.

Although the final sentence was the one proposed in the plea agreement, Mullen’s calculation of it through the steps outlined in Maine’s system for determining sentences differed slightly from prosecutors’ recommendation.

“This is a serious sentence. Anyone who claims otherwise clearly hasn’t served a sentence behind bars, much less a sentence of a term of years,” Mullen said after explaining why he accepted the plea agreement.

“I get it,” Mullen continued. “It’s nearly impossible for someone who has had a loved one suffer at the hands of another to find any solace in the sentence, whatever it might be, that’s ultimately handed down to the perpetrator.”

Flood was originally set to go on trial for murder in November. After jury selection began, the trial was called off amid a flurry of last-minute, pretrial motions related to evidence and alternative suspects and the introduction of new evidence from prosecutors.

The second attempt at the trial was scheduled for Monday. But prosecutors and Flood’s attorneys reached the deal for the lesser charge of manslaughter before jury selection was set to begin Thursday.

One of Flood’s court-appointed attorneys, Verne E. Paradie Jr. of the Lewiston law firm Paradie & Rabasco, said in court Tuesday that after the first scheduled trial, he raised more issues about evidence that may have helped plea negotiations.

“We’ve always been clear that if we got under 10 (years), then Mr. Flood would accept responsibility,” Paradie said.

Paradie noted the sentence means Flood will likely have the opportunity to be released from prison before he dies.

The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Lisa R. Bogue, also acknowledged evidentiary issues in the state’s case.

“This is certainly a compromise that the parties came to, given the nature and circumstances of the evidence of the case,” Bogue said. “It’s certainly not a statement on the value and the love that Mr. Trabue had with his friends.”

Bogue said mitigating factors in determining the sentence were that Flood accepted responsibility, and his criminal history was from decades ago and nonviolent. An aggravating factor was the impact on friends and family, she said. Mullen agreed with her assessment.

Several people who appeared to be friends or family of Trabue were in court for Tuesday’s proceeding. Two of them spoke.

Cheri Sanborn said Trabue was a close friend who was always willing to help with anything she asked of him. She said she has not been able to cry because she has been so upset about Trabue’s death.

“I can’t believe it happened to him, of all people,” she said.

Sanborn said she had warned Trabue to kick Flood out of living at his home after Flood threatened him several times. Before Trabue’s death, Flood had been in a romantic relationship with Susan Viles, a woman who lived with Trabue, according to court filings from police.

Fabian Amaya, in his impact statement to the court, recalled watching wrestling on TV with Trabue and said he cannot bring himself to watch it anymore. He said the last thing he said to Trabue was “thank you” after Trabue had bought him a soda.

“My instinct is to ask, ‘Why?’” he said, looking at Flood across the courtroom. “But I already know the answer.”

Amaya, described in court filings as Viles’ grandson, was among the potential alternative suspects Flood’s attorneys intended to propose at a trial. Mullen, the justice, ultimately ruled against the use of most evidence pertaining to alternative suspects.

Flood, wearing blue jail clothing and shackled, did not speak in court, except to answer a few basic questions Mullen asked.

He largely did not look at Sanborn and Amaya while they each addressed the court.

Flood was denied bail and has been held at the Somerset County Jail in Madison since his arrest Sept. 1, 2023.

A grand jury indicted Flood in October 2023 on a charge of intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder, and he pleaded not guilty.

Trabue’s body was found with multiple stab wounds July 8, 2023, at Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, according to the Maine State Police. An autopsy the next day by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed multiple stab wounds, and Trabue’s death was ruled a homicide.

Viles told detectives she broke up with Flood and kicked him out of the room she rented from Trabue about a month before the alleged murder, state police Detective Jillian Monahan wrote in the affidavit supporting Flood’s arrest.

Court filings from police and prosecutors suggest the two men had an argument a few days before the alleged murder. Flood threatened Trabue during that argument, but later he said the comment was a joke, the affidavit says.

Police said they later found six knives while executing the search warrant. None of them tested positive for blood, the affidavit says.

Police also said they found a belt they believed to belong to Flood at a friend’s residence where he was staying. The Maine State Police Crime Lab determined blood on the belt matched Trabue’s DNA profile, court filings say.

Prosecutors believed Flood was the last person to speak with Trabue on the phone and to see him alive before his body was found at the cemetery, Bogue, the prosecutor, wrote in a court filing. Flood’s DNA was also found in Trabue’s car.

Flood also told two people while being held at the Somerset County Jail that he killed Trabue, Bogue wrote.

As Tuesday’s sentencing concluded, Mullen told Flood he hopes to never see him in his courtroom again.

“But if I do,” Mullen said from the bench, “I’ve warned you of the likely consequences.”