AUBURN — A woman testified Friday that Michael McNaughton was at her Lewiston apartment last year when he handed her a screwdriver and explained how he could “horribly and painfully kill somebody” three ways with the tool.

Katie Mae Brown said in Androscoggin County Superior Court that McNaughton, 26, of Lewiston described for her in detail how the compact orange and black item could be used as an effective weapon, including severing the top of the spinal column.

McNaughton, who is on trial for the death of 20-year-old Romeo Parent of Lewiston, used that same screwdriver to non-fatally stab Parent in the back of the neck on the night of April 9, 2013, just hours after sharing his knowledge of weapons with Brown, prosecutors have said. McNaughton also used a homemade garrote to strangle Parent that night, according to prosecutors.

A medical examiner testified at the trial that the screwdriver found by police at the crime scene that was identified by several witnesses as belonging to McNaughton was consistent with the injury to the back of Parent’s neck near the top of his spinal column.

On the third day of McNaughton’s trial Friday, prosecutors sought to bolster the testimony of their primary witness, Nathan Morton, 25, of Greene, who said he drove McNaughton, Parent and William True, 20, of Lewiston on that night to a wooded area in Greene where McNaughton strangled Parent to death. Morton said True, who was arraigned earlier Friday on a murder charge in the case, told him that he punched and kicked Parent a couple of times at the crime scene.

Morton testified for a day and a half Thursday and Friday before finally stepping down from the witness stand. He had been charged with murder in the case, but that charge was dropped when he pleaded guilty recently to a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for his testimony and a 20-year prison sentence, of which 10 years are suspended.

The motive for the crime has been reported as Parent’s punishment for implicating True in a burglary that he and Parent committed a week before Parent was killed. Word on the street had been that “snitches get stitches,” prosecutors told the jury in opening statements.

Brown said McNaughton came to her Knox Street apartment with Morton the night Parent was killed and the two men talked about Parent needing a beating for “ratting out” True for the burglary. She said she had known Morton for roughly a year before Parent’s murder, but she didn’t really know McNaughton.

Morton left shortly afterward and Brown said she was alone in her apartment with McNaughton who began showing her his screwdriver, telling her how it could be concealed to make it easier to “sneak up” on someone who was unsuspecting.

As she held the tool, Brown said she had slipped it into her bra to test how easily it could be hidden.

Brown said McNaughton’s references to killing didn’t worry her at the time.

“I thought it was just talk,” she said.

When Morton returned to Brown’s apartment, his cellphone rang. He answered it, then told McNaughton they had to leave, she said.

Brown said she later worried that her fingerprints might be found on the screwdriver.

Morton had testified earlier that he and McNaughton had been searching for Parent. The phone call he received at Brown’s apartment was from a friend disclosing Parent’s location. From Brown’s apartment, Morton said he and McNaughton drove to pick up True, then found Parent outside a CVS store in Auburn. The four of them drove to Greene where Parent was killed, Morton had testified.

Brown said Morton later told her that McNaughton had killed Parent and that True had been at the scene. She said she was upset because Parent had been a friend. She said she hadn’t wanted to talk to Morton, but she had questions about what had happened to Parent. She didn’t talk to Morton after that, she said.

Another woman, Tamesha Haas, who traveled in the same circles and shared the Knox Street apartment with Brown, testified Friday that she knew McNaughton only as someone who made drug connections. She said she had known Morton as a friend and drug contact and would interact with him daily. She said she had gone to school with Parent and they had been friends.

She said Morton had used his cellphone to set up a drug deal with her the night Parent was killed. According to a cellphone application called Voxer that turned the phone into a walkie-talkie, she could see that Morton had been calling from South Mountain Road in Greene. That’s where Morton testified that he had parked his Volkswagen Passat the night of April 9, 2013, and dropped off McNaughton and True who walked into the woods with Parent to kill him. Only McNaughton and True had returned.

Haas said she later shared that information from her phone with police, showing Morton’s location and a transcript of their discussion.

She said Morton later told her he was sorry about Parent’s death and told her he hadn’t been aware of a plan to kill him.

A third woman, Emily Horton, who said she knew Morton well, testified Friday that Morton came to her apartment the night of April 9, 2013, after leaving Brown’s apartment because she wanted to talk to him about a fight she had had with her boyfriend. Morton had driven Horton to Brown’s apartment, but he couldn’t stay long because shortly after arriving he had gotten the phone call that provided Parent’s location.

In court Friday, Horton also identified McNaughton’s screwdriver, found by police at the crime scene. She said she had seen it as well as another of McNaughton’s weapons that was “kind of like a hatchet.”

She said McNaughton “would just hold (his screwdriver) and fiddle with it.”

McNaughton had told her that if she ever had any problems with her boyfriend, “he had military training (from serving in the U.S. Army) and could take care of things,” she said he assured her.

Defense attorney Verne Paradie Jr. cross-examined the prosecution’s witnesses, pointing out any inconsistencies between their testimony and statements they made to police during earlier interviews. He also noted conflicting details between their testimony and Morton’s in an effort to discredit Morton’s testimony.

The women said they had heard many rumors and had seen many news reports that were circulating after Parent’s disappearance and after his stripped and bound body was found in Jug Stream in Monmouth.

Paradie pointed out that Brown had described the screwdriver to police as yellow in color, not orange. She agreed with Paradie “absolutely” that Morton had changed his story several times about details surrounding Parent’s killing.

Testimony in the jury trial is scheduled to continue Monday morning.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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