SCOTTSVILLE – Two witnesses in a double murder case testified Friday, during the third day of the trial in Allen Circuit Court, about separate altercations between one of the victims and one of the defendants.

Bernis Rupe testified he had been with the defendants – Dustin L. Asher, 31, of Glasgow, and Lonnie Dale Freeman, 39, of Etoile – and the victims, Daniel Froedge, 38, of Park City and Kelly O. Johnson, 32, of Smiths Grove, at Tony Jesse’s Junkyard in Allen County.

There, Freeman &#8220slapped around” Froedge, Rupe said. Rupe said he then left and never saw Froedge or Johnson again.

&#8220Dustin later told me he thought Lonnie had killed them,” Rupe said.

Asher and Freeman have each been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of tampering with physical evidence.

The bodies of Froedge and Johnson were discovered July 28, 2005 on a small gravel lane just outside Scottsville.

Danny Froedge’s wife, Renee, testified her husband and Freeman had gotten into another altercation two or three weeks before his disappearance that resulted in her husband getting a busted lip.

Asher and Freeman’s attorney Daniel Taylor III, of Louisville, questioned Rupe for more than 90 minutes about his role, if any, in the killings.

During opening arguments, Taylor had said he believes Rupe is the true killer of Froedge and Johnson.

Taylor had a handgun admitted into evidence he claims was the murder weapon. The six-shot revolver had two spent casings inside and four bullets.

&#8220I know what you’re trying to get me to say and that sounds real good for your side,” Rupe said to Taylor. &#8220But I didn’t kill nobody and that gun didn’t kill nobody.”

Taylor’s questioning of Rupe was frequently stopped when he attempted to question Rupe about bad acts Allen Circuit Judge William Harris ruled were not relevant to the trial.

When asked by Taylor if he had lied in the past, Rupe admitted having done so. He also admitted using methamphetamine and taking parts from a vehicle he knew was stolen.

Rupe also stated he offered to take the rap for the murder to keep Asher out of trouble if it would also get his brother Stanley Chapman out of a possible long federal prison sentence.

&#8220I never said I did it. I never said I saw who did it,” Rupe said. &#8220I never saw anybody get killed and never told anybody I did.”

He said he offered to take the fall if it would make all the questioning and other troubles go away.

Taylor asked Rupe why he asked Kentucky State Police Detective Jeff Wilson to sign a document stating Rupe wouldn’t be charged in the murder.

Rupe responded he was worried Freeman was telling detectives something to keep himself from getting in trouble.

&#8220He’s good at keeping himself out of jail,” Rupe said.

Kentucky State Police Detective Forest Winchester was asked if detectives could promise to drop federal or state charges to get statements about cases.

&#8220I am not authorized to do that,” he responded.

Rupe, Asher and Freeman were identified in the early stages of the investigation as associates of Froedge and Johnson, Winchester said.

Winchester also said pieces of metal were found in the bodies of both Froedge and Johnson during their autopsies.

He testified that although the items haven’t been identified, they could be bullet fragments.

In expert testimony Thursday, Emily Craig, Kentucky forensic anthropologist and state medical examiner, said Froedge had been shot once in the head.

Forensic entomologist Neal Haskell said, based on the size of maggots and larvae on the two bodies, the time of death was between July 13 and July 15.

The bodies also had been burned very close to the time they were killed, he said.

&#8220I found no burned insects inside the body,” Haskell said. &#8220I have sometimes found that when people were killed and then later burned.”

Because of the lack of burned insects inside the bodies, it appeared they were killed at the location they were found, he said.

Renee Froedge testified the last time she saw her husband alive was on July 13.