SOUTH PARIS — A Connecticut man charged with murder stemming from the stabbing of a Fryeburg Fairgrounds worker in October pleaded not guilty Friday.

Carlos Negron Oxford County Sheriff’s Office photo

Carlos A. Negron, 47, a transient from Connecticut, is charged with the intentional or knowing murder of Anderson Gomes, 31, of Waterbury, Connecticut.

A murder conviction is punishable by a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Negron appeared in Oxford County Superior Court by videoconference from the Oxford County Jail, where he is being held without bail pending trial.

According to an affidavit written by a Maine State Police detective, Gomes had been upset about not getting a ride back to Connecticut from the fairgrounds with other fair workers.

He had apparently been drinking and had become belligerent, witnesses said.

One witness said she’d heard Gomes had punched a man in the face. That witness said she then saw Gomes on top of the man. After someone pulled Gomes off the man, he continued to behave in a belligerent and confrontational manner when Negron came from behind a trailer and appeared to punch Gomes, the witness said.

A witness heard Negron tell Gomes: “Don’t f— with my family,” according to the affidavit.

That same witness then heard Gomes’ girlfriend yell that he had been stabbed. Gomes “continued to walk around in a belligerent, argumentative manner” then sat down on the steps of a camper, the witness told investigators.

A witness told police she’d heard Gomes had been unhappy that his girlfriend had been flirting with Negron.

When interviewed, Negron said he had been drinking that night with Gomes, who left and returned later with “an attitude.”