PARIS – The wife of a Sumner man accused of killing two men in West Paris last summer testified at his murder trial Wednesday in Oxford County Superior Court.

Under immunity from prosecution, Naomi Waterman said her husband, Duane Christopher Waterman, 33, made incriminating statements to her the day after the shooting deaths of Timothy Mayberry, 50, of West Paris and Todd Smith, 43, of Paris are believed to have occurred.

She said Duane visited her July 26, 2008, at the Oxford County Jail and told her to tell investigators that she had sold a Llama .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun the couple owned. She said he had scratches on his arms.

“After that, he told me that I would see Tim on the news,” she said.

The body of Timothy Mayberry was found outside his home on Tuelltown Road around 5:15 p.m. on July 26. Naomi said Duane made the statement at about 1:50 p.m.

Police believe the men were killed the evening of July 25.

Naomi said she lied to investigators and the grand jury when she said she sold the weapon to Mayberry before the murders.

“I was sticking by my husband and standing up for him, and doing what he told me to do,” she said.

Naomi, who married Duane in 1992, filed for divorce in April; that matter is scheduled for resolution after the trial. She said she has stopped using drugs and denied that her testimony was a way of keeping Duane away from her and the couple’s three children.

“I had just decided that I needed to tell the truth,” she said.

Naomi testified that Duane lost his job as a mechanic due to a back injury in March 2008. She said the couple became addicted to painkillers and cocaine. She said they kept several OxyContin pills that Mayberry gave them to sell in Machias, and that they still owed Mayberry about $1,500 of a $3,000 debt over the failed sale when she was arrested for theft on July 11.

During Naomi’s testimony, the jury heard four phone calls between Duane and Naomi, which were recorded by the inmate phone system between July 16 and July 25.

In one of the calls, the Watermans speak jokingly with Mayberry. In the others, Duane expresses anger over Mayberry’s attempts to collect on the debt. He also says he is afraid that he and his children would be attacked in their homes over rumors that the Watermans were informing police about drug deals.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Benson said some of Duane’s statements in the calls were threatening, such as one on the evening of July 25 when he said, “About to have a nervous [expletive] breakdown and that’s all there is to it. And when I do, there’s gonna be some [expletive] hurting mother sons of [expletive], I’m telling you right now. I don’t care, ’cause I ain’t scared of doing time.”

Defense lawyer John Jenness Jr. said Duane may have been threatening to call a police officer to report a false accident report that Mayberry had filed, noting that Duane had suggested going to police on the issue in other calls. He said other discussions in the July 25 call suggest that Waterman was going fishing with his children, as he told police he did that evening.

Waterman was arrested Aug. 4, 2008, while fishing with his children on Brettuns Pond in Livermore.

Under cross-examination, Naomi denied that her decision to change her testimony in February coincided with the start of a friendship with Shannon Francis of West Paris, a potential witness in the case. She said that relationship began in March.

The state rested its case after testimony from six other witnesses.

Speaking on the condition of immunity, Kevin Litchfield of Oxford said he sold the .380-caliber handgun to the Watermans prior to the murders for $40 and a digital camera. Litchfield said he had given Josiah Heath of Paris 40 milligrams of OxyContin for the gun. Heath, also given immunity, confirmed Litchfield’s testimony and said he had fired the gun on his property before trading it to Litchfield.

Detective John Hainey of the Maine State Police said .380-caliber casings were found in Heath’s driveway, and that Heath turned over three .380-caliber bullets to police. Hainey said police were unable to find the weapon used in the killings.

State police Detective Michael Zabarsky said a search at the Watermans’ home found three .380-caliber bullets in a nightstand drawer, as well as paperwork for the sale of a Llama .380-caliber handgun in a safe.

Kim Stevens, a forensic scientist with the Maine State Police Crime Lab, said shell casings found at Heath’s home and shell casings found at Mayberry’s house, where the shootings took place, were ejected from the same weapon. She said the bullets found in the men’s bodies and those fired at Heath’s home were also from the same weapon, and matched the manufacture of the bullets found at the Watermans’ house.