PORTLAND – Two minutes after he yelled at a motorboat for having no lights, Robert LaPointe Jr. hung up his cell phone, throttled up his speedboat “No Patience” and sped off in the same direction, a prosecutor in Cumberland County Superior Court said Tuesday.

LaPointe had been drinking all day, then had six more beers, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Norbert said in court on the opening day of the double manslaughter trial of LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass., and Bridgton.

Less than a minute later, residents of Long Lake in Harrison heard a thud and the sound of boat engines screaming out of the water, Norbert said.

The loud thud was the sound of LaPointe’s 34-foot cigarette boat smashing into a 14-foot motorboat at 9 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2007, Norbert said. The occupants of the smaller boat, Terry Raye Trott, 55, of Naples and passenger Suzanne Groetzinger, 44, of Berwick were killed in the crash.

LaPointe and his passenger, Nicole Randall, 19, of Bridgton, were thrown from his boat and swam about four-tenths of a mile to shore.

LaPointe’s powerful boat continued to speed its way to shore, going so fast it traveled the distance of half a football field (150 feet) on land before it came to rest in woods, Norbert said. LaPointe later told authorities repeatedly that his boat had been going 45 mph, she said.

The lights on the smaller boat were working and the switch was turned to the “On” position, she said.

Norbert said LaPointe was legally drunk, knew it, and tried to get the nurse who later drew his blood for a blood-alcohol test to swap hers for his.

“The only proper and just verdict will be a guilty verdict,” she said.

LaPointe’s lawyer painted a different picture.

“A tragic accident occurred” that night, said J. Albert Johnson, a renowned Boston attorney, who is leading a three-lawyer defense team. He disagreed with most of the scenario laid out by Norbert.

“At no time was Robert LaPointe intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol,” Johnson told a jury of nine women and six men.

He promised to present witnesses who had encountered LaPointe over the course of that day who would repeat that assertion.

“He possessed all of the qualities of a person who is sober,” Johnson said.

LaPointe had worked at his Bridgton home that morning where he drank Gatorade. He ate lunch at Rick’s Café and washed it down with Sprite, not the beer he ordered, Johnson said.

That night, while socializing aboard a group of boats tied together on the lake, LaPointe was “absolutely sober,” and defense witnesses will share that view with the jury, Johnson said.

The 14-foot boat that passed LaPointe that night had no lights turned on, Johnson said. Despite the collision, LaPointe “exercised the due care of anyone who operates a boat,” Johnson said.

After the crash, LaPointe and Randall swam to a dock and climbed ashore. Witnesses from the scene, including those with medical expertise, will testify that his actions didn’t suggest he was intoxicated, Johnson said.

Moreover, LaPointe’s blood sample was compromised by a 34-hour wait in a heated vehicle before the sample was delivered to the state’s lab for analysis, Johnson said.

Prosecutors must prove each element of the alleged crimes beyond reasonable doubt. They won’t be able to do that, Johnson said. That will add up to verdicts of not guilty, he said.

LaPointe is charged with two counts of manslaughter, two counts of aggravated operating under the influence and one count of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

Prosecutors began presenting their case Tuesday, calling two witnesses who had sat on the dark shore of Long Lake that night, watching and listening to boat traffic. They testified that they heard both boats. They described similarly the sound of propellers on LaPointe’s twin 435-horsepower engines as they approached the small boat, left the water for an instant, then resumed their underwater path to shore. Both men said they had spent enough time around boats to recognize the sound of different types and sizes of motors and the sounds they make at idle, at high revs and out of water.

One of the witnesses, a professional photographer, said he saw a boat that night fitting the description of LaPointe’s and saw its operator in silhouette. He said he would not travel faster than 22 mph in his boat at night and only would go that fast under the best conditions.

LaPointe’s trial is expected to last roughly two weeks.