The state’s highest court has upheld the convictions of two Auburn residents found guilty of murdering two men in Lewiston woods after a night of drinking.

Thomas Dyer, 22, and Gary Gauthier, 27, were convicted in the September 2005 slayings of James Vining, 43, and John Graffam, 30.

Both defendants appealed their convictions to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Gauthier also appealed his 60-year sentence. Dyer, who was given a 47-year sentence, did not challenge his.

The defendants claimed an Androscoggin County Superior Court judge mistakenly instructed the jury that it could find each of them guilty if it decided the defendants had killed Graffam “and/or” Vining. The defendants also said the judge erred in instructing the jury about “accomplice liability,” a term used to describe guilt by involvement.

The grand jury indictment against the defendants charged each with a single count of murder. The high court wrote in its Thursday decision that the jury instruction including the words “and/or” didn’t stray from the original indictment enough to handicap the defendants because that language put them on notice they were being charged with murder. It also didn’t change the way the state would have prosecuted its case, the high court wrote.

The trial judge presiding over the case also instructed the jury that “when a defendant’s presence (at a crime scene) has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, the state need only prove any conduct that intentionally promotes or facilitates the crime, however slight.”

The defendants argued in their appeal that the jury might have misunderstood the judge and believed a lesser standard than “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” was needed to convict somebody on the basis of accomplice liability.

The high court rejected that argument, finding, first, that the two defendants had failed to raise the issue during the trial and, second, that there was “no reasonable possibility” that the jury verdict would have been different had the instructions been given differently.

The state’s top court also upheld Gauthier’s sentence, concluding that it didn’t violate his constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process.

The panel of six judges wrote that the trial judge, Justice Thomas Delahanty II, reached his decision about Gauthier’s sentence properly. Gauthier’s aggravating factors strongly outweighed those that would lighten his sentence, the high court wrote. Gauthier had shown no remorse or empathy, took no responsibility for his actions, was at high risk of reoffending and had a prior history of assaults, burglary and disorderly conduct, the court wrote in a footnote.

Co-defendants Dyer and Gauthier each pointed blame at the other; Dyer taking the stand during trial and Gauthier professing his innocence before sentencing.

Prosecutors said the two lured their victims into woods near railroad tracks in Lewiston where they were beaten to death with a baseball bat. Their bodies were hidden in shallow graves, their wallets taken to hide their identities.

The defendants buried evidence of the crime in a hole in the ground in Pownal. A caretaker found the stash and called police a couple of months after the crime.