By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

PORTLAND – A friend of Brandon Thongsavanh testified Thursday to watching him stab Morgan McDuffee several times during a fight between Bates College students and local youths in Lewiston in 2002.

Nate Tao, 23, of Auburn told Cumberland County Superior Court jurors he remembered seeing McDuffee’s face as he was being stabbed. “It was a blank stare,” he said.

Thongsavanh, 22, of Lewiston, is being tried a second time in the slaying of the 22-year-old Bates College senior. He was found guilty of murder in 2003, but the Maine Supreme Judicial Court overturned the verdict on grounds that the jury was biased by seeing a T-shirt he was reportedly wearing in the early morning of March 3, 2002, when McDuffee died.

Hours before the stabbing, friends Thongsavanh, Tao and Nick Barajas of Auburn went to two parties. Tao said he drank between six to eight beers and did not take any drugs. He said he, Barajas and another man did buy crack cocaine in Lewiston during the evening, but it was not for him.

Later, at a party at Justin Asselin’s house in Auburn, Chad Aube, 23, of Auburn came in and said they should go to another party, Tao said. Barajas, Tao and Thongsavanh got back in Barajas’ Chevrolet Blazer and drove around Lewiston trying to find the party.

On Main Street they saw a group fighting, he said, and people lying in the street. “We drove around them” and parked on Riverside Street. They jumped out and ran over.

“I saw Chad Aube and Morgan McDuffee fighting,” Tao said. McDuffee was choking him.

Thongsavanh “pulled Chad off Morgan. He (Thongsavanh) got punched in the face. He put his arms out like this,” Tao said, holding out his arms. “I could see something in his hand. It was a knife. Morgan swung into him. Brandon stabbed him in the chest and on the back.”

Tao said Thongsavanh stabbed him several times. He did not see Aube at that moment, he said.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese asked if anything was blocking Tao’s view.

“No,” he said.

Tao said he suspected the stabbing was fatal and “didn’t know what to do.”

Someone yelled the police were coming, he said, and the three got back in the Blazer and sped off.

“You killed that kid,” Tao said he told Thongsavanh.

Thongsavanh said nothing, he testified.

“I could see him wiping something on his pants,” Tao said, adding he believed it was the knife.

They returned to Asselin’s house, where Thongsavanh spent 20 to 30 minutes in the bathroom, Tao said. They then left Thongsavanh at a house where they had partied earlier.

The next morning, after being interviewed by police, Tao and Barajas went to Thongsavanh’s home and told him they would not tell the police he was with them the night before, Tao said.

“Why?” Marchese asked. “We wanted to protect him,” Tao answered.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Scott Lynch pointed out that Tao had lied to detectives, prosecutors and an Androscoggin County grand jury.

Tao admitted lying to the grand jury, to detectives and prosecutors from March 2002 through January 2003 to protect Thongsavanh, his friend. But after police kept confronting him with his lies, Tao said, “I couldn’t take it anymore.”

“I’m not lying today,” he testified.

The defense maintains Aube killed McDuffee. The Lexington, Mass., man died of a stab wound to the heart, a medical examiner testified Wednesday. An autopsy showed four stab wounds in his back and stomach, Dr. Michael Ferenc said, and one to the heart that was the fatal one.

Also on Thursday, Thongsavanh’s former fiancee testified under duress. Dori St. Germain of Greene said she and Thongsavanh broke up about a year ago. She testified that Thongsavanh went out with friends the night McDuffee was killed, but did not know what time Thongsavanh returned. She said she initially told police that Thongsavanh was home all evening, but later told police the truth because she was afraid the state would take her children.

The trial, which finished its fourth day Thursday, will continue Tuesday.