AUBURN – One of two defendants charged with beating two men to death with a baseball bat last October and burying their bodies in Lewiston was handed a pretrial victory this week.

Thomas “Tommy” James Dyer, 21, of 2047 Hotel Road, through Mexico lawyer Peter Rodway, was seeking to have the court order state prosecutors to turn over electronic files in connection with Maine State Police Crime Laboratory testing of DNA evidence gathered in the case.

Those test results allegedly incriminate Dyer in the fatal beatings of John Graffam, 30, and James Vining, 43, both formerly of Auburn, were found dead near railroad tracks on Oct. 29, 2005, along Foss Road in Lewiston. A police affidavit said the two were beaten with a baseball bat.

Androscoggin County Superior Court Justice Thomas Delahanty II wrote in court papers that the state must turn over background material used in the DNA testing if it plans to introduce that evidence at trial. He wrote that Dyer is entitled to know the opinion of the state’s DNA expert and should have the opportunity to test that expert’s theories or methods.

State prosecutors would be allowed to edit out any information that doesn’t apply to the double homicide, Delahanty wrote.

Or prosecutors could enter into a confidentiality agreement with the defense’s expert promising he would not disclose any information not relevant to the case.

Delahanty also wrote that the defense must let prosecutors know if it plans to offer expert testimony or opinion at least 10 days before the trial.

The trial of Dyer and co-defendant Gary Roger Gauthier Jr., 25, of 971 Washington St. is scheduled for Oct. 23. Both are being held in Androscoggin County Jail.