AUBURN – Gary Gauthier Jr. was a drunken “madman” when he lured two Auburn men into woods in Lewiston last fall and beat them with a baseball bat, then threatened to kill Tommy Dyer if he didn’t participate, Dyer testified Thursday.

Dyer, 21, of Auburn took the stand on the fourth day of his and Gauthier’s trial on charges they murdered James Vining, 43, and John Graffam, 30, both formerly of Auburn, near an abandoned railroad bed the night of Sept. 23, 2005, and buried their bodies there.

Dyer testified for nearly two and a half hours, detailing how Gauthier, 25, also of Auburn, lured the men to the remote area near the end of Foss Road with the promise of pot plants, then killed them. Their bodies were discovered Oct. 29 by hunters, weeks after they were reported missing by their families and friends.

Dyer said Gauthier became enraged during a night of drinking when Vining boasted he served in the U.S. Marines.

Vining and Graffam were sitting on the railroad tracks, Graffam smoking a cigarette. Gauthier and Dyer were nearby. Dyer said Gauthier told him to beat up Graffam. Dyer refused.

Dyer hadn’t wanted to walk into the woods that night, he said, fearing something bad would happen. Gauthier was “like a madman,” he said, marked by bulging eyes.

The next thing he knew, he said, Gauthier walked over to the two men and began swinging an aluminum baseball bat he had taken secretly from the trunk of his car.

He hit Vining in the head, knocking him to the ground. He moved to Graffam and hit him before moving back to Vining, Dyer said. At one point, he kneeled down where Vining was lying on the ground.

Gauthier taunted: “‘You’re a big Marine, aren’t you?'” Dyer testified.

“I said, ‘Enough, enough,'” Dyer told the jury. “It had gotten out of hand.”

Gauthier handed him the bat and told him to hit Graffam.

“I said, ‘No way.'”

Gauthier then pulled a foot-long hunting knife from his pocket, Dyer said, and threatened him if he refused, saying, “‘I’ll kill you too.'”

Dyer said he swung the bat a couple of times one handed and half-heartedly, hitting Graffam. He also stomped on Graffam a couple of times, he said, demonstrating for the jury.

He never hit Vining, he said.

The two went back to the car, leaving the two men. Graffam appeared to be dead. Vining was still breathing, Dyer said.

Gauthier drove them to Wal-Mart and bought two shovels. They went back to bury the bodies. Vining was still alive until Gauthier whacked him on the back of the head with one of the shovels, Dyer said.

They buried the men in shallow graves.

But when they came back a second time to check on the scene, one of Vining’s shoes was sticking out of the ground, Dyer said. Gauthier told him to dig another grave in a swampier area down the hill.

Dyer said he did what Gauthier told him because he was afraid of him, especially when he had been drinking. He denied he killed Vining and Graffam.

But on Thursday, he admitted he lied to police about his involvement and that he had never met Vining. He also asked others to lie for him, including his girlfriend, in hopes of having an alibi.

“I was afraid of going to prison for something I didn’t do,” he said.

The prosecutor and Gauthier’s attorney, Robert Ruffner, hammered away at Dyer’s story, highlighting conflicting statements to police and others, including his girlfriend at the time. She said sometime after the killing Dyer told her he wasn’t present during the killings, and Gauthier had threatened him with a gun, not a knife.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese asked Dyer how blood could have gotten on a shirt Dyer said Gauthier had worn under a baseball jersey, and why didn’t he help Vining, who was still breathing after the beatings.

“You participated too, didn’t you?” she said.

Why, she asked, did he spend so much time with Gauthier after the killings, remaining friends, if he was so afraid of him.

Ruffner tried to show that the bloodstained clothes told a different story, one that implicated Dyer.

Ruffner called to the stand three witnesses whom Dyer had allegedly asked to cover for him. One of them, Dyer’s former girlfriend, said Dyer would do whatever Gauthier told him to do. She also testified that Gauthier had told her he had once beaten somebody to death with a baseball bat.

Dyer is being represented by attorney Peter Rodway.

Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday without witnesses who could put the defendants at the scene or the aluminum bat in their hands. They sought to link them and the slain men by DNA found on clothes hidden in a hole in Pownal, miles from where the bodies were found. They also had a beer can found in one of the makeshift graves that had Gauthier’s DNA on it.

Closing arguments to the jury – there are seven men and seven women, including two alternates – are scheduled for Friday morning.

Justice Thomas E. Delahanty II is presiding at the trial at Androscoggin County Superior Court.