By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Gary Gauthier Jr., one of two Auburn men accused in the October slayings of two Auburn men, has a criminal history of violence.

According to court records, the 25-year-old Gauthier was arrested in 2001 and charged with beating another man with a baseball bat.

In May 2001, Auburn police arrested Gauthier on a charge of aggravated assault and two counts of simple assault in the beating. The charges stemmed from an attack in which another man was pummeled with a bat on Fifth Street.

Around the same time, Gauthier was charged with more counts of assault and criminal threatening for attacks in March and June of the same year. He was ultimately found guilty on two counts of assault and sentenced to 120 days in jail on both counts. The sentences were suspended, according to court records, and Gauthier remained free while serving probation.

Gauthier, of 971 Washington St., was arrested Wednesday along with Thomas Dyer, 20, of 2047 Hotel Road, and charged in the autumn killings.

Police said 30-year-old John Graffam and 43-year-old James Vining died after they were beaten on the heads with a blunt object. Their bodies were found Oct. 29 along Foss Road in Lewiston. Investigators have not said what type of weapon was used in the killings.

Graffam, who in court records lists several addresses in Lewiston and Auburn, as well as one in Massachusetts, has been arrested numerous times for assaults and burglaries.

In April 2002, he was nabbed after breaking into the new Andover College on Lisbon Street in Lewiston. He was captured just minutes after the break-in, and police recovered $2,500 in computer and other equipment. Gauthier was ultimately convicted on a charge of burglary and sentenced to 15 days in jail.

Dyer, described as a close friend of Gauthier, has a lesser criminal history, police said. At the time of the killings, he was on probation from an earlier conviction for theft.

At one time shortly before they were arrested, Gauthier and Dyer worked together at a doughnut shop on Center Street in Auburn. A supervisor at the shop said Thursday she had been instructed not to talk about the case or about Gauthier and Dyer’s employment history.

Both men, each charged with two counts of murder, are scheduled to appear today in 8th District Court in Lewiston. Police have not discussed particular motives for the attack, although they said Gauthier and Dyer had a run-in with Graffam in September while the three were being held at the Androscoggin County Jail.

One man, a former jail inmate, said Gauthier and Dyer bullied several other people at the lockup and that they whipped Graffam with a wet towel. However, the three men – Gauthier, Dyer and Graffam – were later seen together riding in a white pickup truck after they had been released.

Police did not comment on that aspect of their investigation. A Maine State Police sergeant said two vehicles had been impounded as well as several other items found in Lewiston, Auburn and Pownal.

Friends and family members of Vining and Graffam described the men as close friends each with an alcohol problem. It was not believed that the two men associated with Gauthier and Dyer before the confrontation at the jail.