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Two sitting Fayette County judges testified Wednesday that convicted killer David Munchinski should have received documents that call his guilt into doubt.

After a 1986 retrial, Munchinski was convicted of the 1977 rape and double murder of James P. Alford and Raymond P. Gierke at Gierke's Bear Rocks home.

Both judges Gerald R. Solomon, who was district attorney at the time, and Ralph Warman, his first assistant, who tried the case in 1986, could not explain why the documents were not turned over.

"If we had them in our possession they should have been provided to the defendant," Solomon said. Both Solomon and Warman said they did not recall seeing the documents before.

After the hearing, Munchinski said he didn't believe the judges' testimony.

"I think that there was more lies told today than truth. Don't drink the water in Fayette County. You'll get amnesia," Munchinski said.

Together, the documents call into question the whereabouts and truthfulness of the prosecution's main witness in the case, Richard Bowen, a convicted thief who hanged himself in prison.

The 11 documents also contain information that others may have committed the crime and refer to physical evidence that may exclude Munchinski as a suspect.

The various reports did not come to the attention of the defense until the state police turned them over in response to a federal judge's order in 1998.

DNA tests are still being conducted in Maryland to determine whether Munchinski's DNA matches biological material obtained from the victims.

While a defense attorney said the case would have ended in acquittal in the 1983 trial, Deputy Attorney General Jonelle L. Harter said she will argue that the 11 documents would not have changed the outcome and eventual conviction.

She also said the law at the time the case went to trial indicates that prosecutors did not have to provide documents to the defense that they are not aware of. The law has since changed, she said, making it the responsibility of prosecutors to go looking for documents that the defense should get.

But at the time, the prosecutors' job was "to turn over what we are aware of and what we have control over," she said.

Munchinski's lawyer, Noah Geary, of Washington, said the argument that prosecutors didn't know about the documents does not hold water.

"The law, of course, is that if the reports are in the possession of various officials for the commonwealth, then they are in the possession and control of the prosecutors," he said.

Warman testified again yesterday, as he did in 1992, that he altered a police report to avoid "confusion" about whether Bowen's initial statement to authorities was tape-recorded. Bowen later admitted he lied to police in his initial statement in 1982.

At trial, Bowen told jurors he drove a getaway car, then entered Gierke's home and watched the rapes and drug-related killings.

Warman said he routinely altered reports to exclude information that the defense was not entitled to. Solomon said he assumed that he gave Warman his approval to make the change.

Visiting Judge Barry F. Feudale, of Northumberland County, will rule whether Munchinski should get a new trial after the DNA tests are concluded and attorneys submit additional written arguments.

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