PORTLAND – The jury at Robert LaPointe’s double manslaughter trial on Thursday heard him tell a game warden repeatedly that his speedboat was going 45 mph when it hit something on Long Lake, throwing him and his passenger into the water.

Maine Warden Jason Luce asked LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass., and Bridgton whether he had been fooling around on his boat the night of Aug. 11, 2007, when it crashed and continued unmanned to shore, traveling 160 feet into the woods.

“I’m telling you right now there’s something out there,” LaPointe’s excited voice was heard on a recording played by prosecutors for the jury. “All right, ‘cuz it cut right in front of us and we just all of a sudden, we’re talking, all of a sudden. Vroom! And it threw us right out of the boat.”

LaPointe and his passenger, Nicole Randall, now 20 years old, emerged from the lake after swimming about four-tenths of a mile to shore. Randall suffered a broken elbow in the crash.

Luce, who was in charge of the scene, recorded his interview with LaPointe about half an hour after LaPointe and Randall came ashore that Saturday night.

Randall testified Wednesday that she had seen a small boat without lights go past LaPointe’s boat at about 9 p.m. going in the same direction just minutes before the crash.

Luce later learned what LaPointe hit: a 14-foot motorboat with two people aboard: Terry Raye Trott, 55, of Harrison and Suzanne Groetzinger, 44, of Berwick. Both died at the scene of the crash in the middle of the lake.

Prosecutors continued to build their case Thursday against LaPointe, presenting more witnesses on the fourth day of his trial in Cumberland County Superior Court.

LaPointe insisted in the recorded interview that nothing was wrong mechanically with his $150,000 boat, which was two years old. The 32-foot cigarette boat with dual 435-horsepower engines was wedged between trees nearby while Luce held the interview in his warden’s truck. The truck was parked at Bear Point on the east side of the lake.

Luce testified he detected a strong odor of alcohol on LaPointe’s breath. Luce testified that he later asked a nurse at Bridgton Hospital to draw LaPointe’s blood to be tested at the state lab later for blood-alcohol content. The results would come back showing LaPointe’s level was over the legal driving limit in Maine.

Luce said he stored the sample in the back seat of his truck for more than a day at his home before delivering it to the lab in Augusta on Monday.

Defense attorney George Hassett questioned Luce about the long time the sample sat in his truck. He questioned whether Luce had been concerned about maintaining a fixed proper temperature in the truck.

He also questioned Luce’s decision not to conduct a field sobriety test on LaPointe before determining there was probable cause to draw his blood for a blood-alcohol test.

Under cross-examination by Hassett, Luce said he hadn’t secured the scene of the boat in the woods, nor had he asked other law enforcement officers at the scene to do so that night.

Another warden, Jeremy Judd, testified Thursday he helped recover the victims’ bodies from the bottom of the lake after photographing them.

Three days after the crash, divers located Groetzinger’s body with debris from the boat, including the deck and motor. They found Trott’s body about 90 feet from the crash site.

Groetzinger’s body was lying on its side, her white shirt over her head. When Judd pulled her shirt down, he could see she had nearly been decapitated. She also had cuts on her arms.

Trott’s body had trauma to the buttocks where his blue jeans were shredded.

The next day, divers returned to the crash site to recover the deck and motor of the smaller boat, Judd said.

He could see the light switch on the boat was pulled out to the “On” position. With a knife, he cut a mark next to the throttle, which he found in the “forward” position. That way, if the throttle was moved during transport, he could recreate its exact position, he said.

Judd also found a so-called light stick attached to the stern of the boat that was wired to the bow lights.

A marine engine expert testified he examined the 115-horsepower motor from Trott’s boat. The throttle had been damaged during the crash, fixing its position, he said. If Trott’s boat had been making headway but was not skimming the water, it probably was going about 13-16 mph. Otherwise, it could have been going as fast as 25 mph, he said.

In addition to two charges of manslaughter, Lapointe faces two charges of aggravated operating under the influence and one charge of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

His trial is expected to continue Friday and into next week.