Robert Mayer, 24, of Oxford said he had been staying in a Lewiston apartment in April 2013 when McNaughton, 26, of Lewiston came to his apartment with a mutual friend. McNaughton told Mayer he “murdered this kid for snitching,” Mayer said.

Another witness, Stephen Demings of Auburn, said in Androscoggin County Superior Court on the sixth day of testimony at McNaughton’s trial that the defendant “told me he murdered somebody.”

Mayer said he had been recruiting carnival workers in the days leading up to Parent’s slaying on April 9, 2013. Several men, including McNaughton, had expressed interest in leaving for jobs in Massachusetts.

When police first asked Mayer about Parent, Mayer didn’t relay McNaughton’s admission to them because he was unsure whether McNaughton was being truthful, he said.

“I wasn’t thinking he literally killed this kid,” Mayer said.

But after learning more about Parent’s murder, Mayer said he talked to police again, telling them what McNaughton had told him.

Demings, one of the carnival recruits, said he’d been living at a Blake Street apartment building that had been condemned by the city of Lewiston. McNaughton had stayed there at one time, Demings said.

Demings testified that he had left behind some bedding when he moved out of that building, including sheets with a fall floral design. The sheets he identified in court as having belonged to him were the same sheets that had been used in the disposal of Parent’s body after he was killed, police said.

Demings said he had taken a 40-minute walk with McNaughton and two other men through downtown Lewiston one night around midnight soon after Parent’s slaying when McNaughton revealed he had killed someone.

Demings said he pressed McNaughton for more details. McNaughton said he and others had baited the trap for Parent by telling him they planned to rob somebody for drugs and drove him to a remote location in Greene.

McNaughton said he used “pokie,” his favorite screwdriver, to stab Parent in the back of the neck as he walked into a wooded area, to which he had been lured. Next, McNaughton said he used “chokie,” a makeshift garrote fashioned from a bicycle brake cable and wooden pegs.

Demings said McNaughton told him he had to choke Parent seven times because he had been medicated with Suboxone, a semi-synthetic drug used to treat opioid addiction. The drug “jump-started his heart so he wouldn’t die,” Demings said McNaughton told him.

When McNaughton began attacking Parent, he reportedly asked: “Why are you doing this to me?” Demings said, quoting McNaughton.

When McNaughton told Demings he left “pokie” at the crime scene, Demings said he suggested to McNaughton that he “maybe should go get it.”

Demings said he had seen both the screwdriver and the garrote in McNaughton’s possession before April 9, 2013.

William True, 20, of Lewiston kicked Parent the night McNaughton killed him, he told Demings.

True was indicted on a murder charge last week in the case.

After choking Parent, McNaughton said he kicked Parent in the head to make sure he was dead, Demings said. That noise sounded like a soccer ball when it’s kicked, McNaughton told him.

True, McNaughton and three others went back to the crime scene a day after Parent’s slaying and moved his body to a river in Monmouth, Demings told police.

McNaughton told Demings there was surprisingly little blood at the scene.

McNaugnton’s attorney, Verne Paradie Jr., questioned Mayer and Demings about their statements to police, pouncing on contradictions and inconsistencies.

Demings said he had worried that he might be implicated in the crime because his sheets had been used in the disposal of Parent’s body, even though he hadn’t participated.

Demings’ now-wife, Zandrea, testified Wednesday, corroborating his story. She said McNaughton had told her during the beginning of the downtown Lewiston walk that “he was scared because he killed somebody and he wanted to run.”

She advised him not to run, she said.

Another witness on Wednesday said he met McNaughton the night of the slaying.

Cory Morton said he was at his family’s home in Greene on April 9, 2013, drinking with a friend in the bedroom of his brother, Nathan Morton, 25. Morton pleaded guilty recently to a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for his testimony at McNaughton’s trial and a 20-year prison sentence, with all but 10 years suspended. A murder charge was dropped.

His brother, Cory, testified Wednesday that Nathan appeared that night with McNaughton, whom Cory had never met.

Cory Morton pointed to McNaughton in the courtroom and said he was only given McNaughton’s nickname, “No One,” at the time.

Morton said McNaughton’s appearance was disheveled, his hair mussed. “He looked kind of banged up, as if he’d been rolling around on the ground,” Morton said.

Spotting blood on McNaughton’s T-shirt, Morton commented on it. McNaughton said it wasn’t blood, but Morton, who worked as a nurse’s aide at the time, told McNaughton that he knew what blood looked like.

Two Maine State Police detectives who collected evidence at the crime scene in Greene testified that they found a screwdriver that witnesses have identified as having belonged to McNaughton.

They also found Parent’s jeans and black T-shirt that had apparently been cut from his body before it was taken to Jug Stream in Monmouth. One of the detectives said he had photographed fresh scratches on McNaughton’s face, neck, arms and hands. Those photographs, as well as photographs of the crime scene, were shown to the jury.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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