4:50 p.m.

The passenger on Robert LaPointe's boat at the time of a fatal accident last year on Long Lake in Harrison said several minutes passed between the time a smaller boat carrying the two victims went by and LaPointe sped up.

Nicole Randall told a Cumberland County Superior Court jury that she and LaPointe spoke about the smaller boat, presumably the 14-foot runabout that carried Terry Raye Trott and Suzanne Groetzinger, as it came up from behind and about 60 feet to the right.

Trott and Groetzinger were killed shortly after 9 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2007, when the two boats collided. Randall was one of several state witnesses who testified during LaPointe's manslaughter trial today.

LaPointe had tied his boat up to Randall's parents' pontoon boat for about 45 minutes prior to the accident, Randall said. She said LaPointe drank two beers during that time.

Her parents headed on to their house, she said, and she and LaPointe were about to follow when LaPointe received a cell phone call. They started out about 10 minutes later, she said, and quickly saw the smaller boat coming up behind.

Randall said she pointed out the boat and the fact that it had no lights on to LaPointe. LaPointe replied, in a monotone, "the (expletive) idiots with no lights on," Randall testified.

She said the smaller boat went by fast and LaPointe's attorneys pointed out she told state officials that the smaller boat was going at about "35-40-50 miles per hour."

LaPointe was traveling at about 35 mph when the accident occurred, Randall testified, but prosecutors contend his boat -- 32 feet long with twin 435-horsepower engines -- was doing 45 mph or more at the time of the accident.

Randall said she remembered feeling the impact of the collision but nothing else before coming to in the water. She and LaPointe swam to shore and she was treated later that night for a broken left elbow.

The trial is scheduled to resume tomorrow morning.

12:25 p.m. Trial witnesses on Wednesday all described a loud roar of boat engines and then crashing sounds as Robert LaPointe's boat went ashore and into the woods off Long Lake in Harrison.

Several said LaPointe and a passenger in the boat, Nicole Randall of Bridgton, were calm when they swam ashore after the crash.

LaPointe's manslaughter trial resumed this morning in Cumberland County Superior Court with testimony from state witnesses who described the sights and sounds of the boat collision on Aug. 11, 2007.

LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass., faces charges of manslaughter, aggravated drunken driving and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. The charges stem from a fatal boat crash on the lake around 9 p.m. that killed Terry Raye Trott of Naples and Suzanne Groetzinger of Berwick.

Prosecutors say LaPointe's blood alcohol content was above the legal limit of 0.08 percent and that he was driving at an unsafe speed of 45 mph or more. LaPointe's attorneys say he was not intoxicated and that he obeyed every boating safety rule.

Susan E. Barton of Portland, who testified this morning, said her family camp is next to the lake.

"It was just the loudest sound I heard in my life. It sounded like a plane crashing," she said.

Barton said after she saw the boat in the woods, she walked to the dock at her family's house and soon spotted a couple swimming to shore.

"They just looked like two people swimming. They were very calm," Barton said. The woman, she testified, said " 'Here we are, we're here,' just as calm as could be."

When the two climbed on the dock, Barton said, LaPointe told her that "a boat had hit him and it didn't have lights on."

Another witness testified she was watching a movie with family members around 9 p.m. when she heard a "totally deafening" engine noise and sound of a collision coming from the direction of the lake. Rhonda Jordan said she had seen a red light moving on the lake, and then moving as though it was on her property.

She called 911, and her daughters ran outside to see what was happening. They saw LaPointe's boat - a 32-foot Sunsation Dominator with twin 435-horsepower engines - in the woods with its engine still running.

Jordan described going to the shorefront and hearing a woman's voice speaking "a casual, 'We're here, we're over here.'" She said the man and woman who came on shore appeared calm.

Jordan later saw a smaller boat being pulled to shore, and she described it as "astoundingly damaged...it was totally pathetic." Trott's boat was a 14-foot Glasspar runabout.

John Heffernan, from Massachusetts, testified that he was in his boat on the lake around 9 p.m. and saw a boat with a red light pass him at a speed about 40 to 45 mph. He said he heard the engine roar and realized the boat hit the shoreline.

The trial is expected to resume this afternoon with more witness testimony.

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