More than a year after the fatal collision on Long Lake in Harrison, it was those on and around the lake at the time who provided the first glimmers of events that night as the manslaughter trial of a Massachusetts man began this week.

Robert LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass., is being tried on two counts of manslaughter, two counts of operating under the influence and one count of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland.

The charges stem from his role in the Aug. 11, 2007 boat collision that killed Naples resident Terry Raye Trott, 55, and Berwick resident Suzanne Groetzinger, 45.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Long Lake residents told a jury of six men and nine women, including three alternates, about seeing the boat on the lake and how LaPointe and his passenger Nicole Randall swam to shore after the crash.

The testimony was also heard by families and friends of LaPointe, Trott and Groetzinger.

Carol and Susan Barton, on whose Bear Point property LaPointe’s boat came to rest after the collision, described the scene. It was Carol Barton who called 911 after the collision. Although Justice Robert Crowley granted a defense motion to exclude the tape of the call as evidence Sept. 5, her description of the night was vivid.

When questioned by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Norbert, Carol Barton said she and her two adult daughters, Susan and Karen, were sitting in the living room watching a movie when they heard a loud engine noise very close to their camp and then heard the sound of the boat colliding with multiple objects.

The boat’s engines were still running as Carol Barton called for help, telling the dispatcher that there was a boat collision and the boat was on shore.

“It was deafening,” Barton said.

Both Barton women talked about searching the area around the boat for any sign of its former occupants. They eventually saw and heard two swimmers in the water, who climbed up on the Bartons’ dock when they made it to shore.

Susan Barton testified that she saw LaPointe and Randall swimming to shore and talked with them as they swam. She said LaPointe told her he owned a Sunsation, didn’t know where it was and that a boat without lights had hit it.

Later that night, Carol Barton said she saw the remains of Trott’s boat, which was pulled up beside her dock.

“It was astoundingly damaged,” she said. “It looked pathetic.” She said it was apparent something had run over the boat, as there was no damage to the bow and the seats and engine were gone.

In his cross-examination, defense attorney George Hasset asked Carol Barton exactly when she first saw the remains of the smaller boat.

He asked Susan Barton if she saw LaPointe have any difficulty exiting the water via the stairs to the dock. Barton replied she didn’t remember. Hasset reconfirmed that she had talked with LaPointe while he was in the water and could understand his responses.

The prosecution also called several other witnesses who heard or saw the boats and the collision from the land or water, as Norbert and Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson tried to establish LaPointe was intoxicated and driving too fast before the crash.

John Heffernan was out on his boat when the collision occurred. He said LaPointe’s boat passed him at what he estimated as 45-50 mph before it hit the shoreline.

He pulled in to dock at Barton’s house and as he was leaving saw two swimmers in the water. The man in the water told Heffernan there was a boat with no lights on in the lake.

John Douglas testified Tuesday to hearing the two boats on the lake that night and hearing a change in engine noise, which he attributed to a collision.

Allan Rosen-Ducat, who was outside his second home on the southern portion of Long Lake around 9 p.m. Aug. 11, 2007, testified that he heard and then saw a large offshore-type boat passing in front of his camp very slowly.

He said he then saw another boat half the size approach to the west of the first boat. At first the smaller boat didn’t seem to have navigational lights, Rosen-Ducat said, but when it turned he could see two lights on the boat. The smaller boat overtook the larger boat and they both moved out of his vision.

Rosen-Ducat said he heard the larger boat accelerate three to four minutes after passing his house, then heard an engine damage noise he attributed to hitting something 20-30 seconds later. The boat’s engine sound returned to a normal throttle for 10-15 seconds, Rosen-Ducat said, before changing back to the engine damage noise for around 10 minutes.

Rosen-Ducat said he crossed the lake with his family around 10:15 p.m. that night and saw life jackets and the hull of the boat that had been crushed in the lake.

J. Albert Johnson, Hasset and Neale Duffett, the attorneys defending LaPointe, seek to prove their client was operating his boat in a reasonable manner, the blood alcohol test he failed was unreliable and Trott and Groetzinger’s boat was not properly lit that night.

On Monday, before Crowley began jury selection, he denied the defense’s request to change the venue of the trial. Lawyers for LaPointe had argued that pre-trial publicity would prevent their client from receiving a fair trial. Opening arguments and the prosecution’s first witnesses were called Tuesday.

The defense had sought to strike the blood alcohol test from the record, claiming the drawing and testing of Robert LaPointe’s blood was in violation of his rights because there was insufficient probable cause to admit the results. LaPointe’s lawyers also argued the sample wasn’t properly transported to a lab.

In his opening argument to jurors, Johnson said blood test results were tainted because the sample was left in a car for 30 hours.

LaPointe’s blood-alcohol content was found to be .11 around three hours after the crash. Crowley will allow testimony by a police chemist who asserts LaPointe’s blood alcohol level was .15 at the time of the collision, almost twice the legal limit of .08.

Crowley ruled on Aug. 6 to allow the blood alcohol test results, but on May 28 he ruled that Maine Game Warden Jason Luce should have informed LaPointe of his right to have an attorney present before he asked him potentially incriminating questions during interviews in Luce’s truck and at Bridgton Hospital.

The fate of two civil suits filed by the heirs of Trott and Groetzinger could also rest on the result of the criminal case. The suits seek damages from LaPointe for the suffering and death of Groetzinger and Trott, from Casino Properties, owners of Rick’s Casino in Naples, for negligently serving alcohol to LaPointe, and from George LaPointe, Jr. for accepting a parcel of land from his son after learning of the plaintiffs’ intent to sue.

An affidavit filed by LaPointe’s wife, Heather LaPointe, claimed the couple was not trying to defraud the heirs of Groetzinger and Trott by taking out a home equity loan, selling property to LaPointe’s father and buying property in Bridgton jointly together with his father. Instead, the transactions were necessary to cover the $100,000 bail and $250,000 retainer fee for Attorney J. Albert Johnson.