PORT CLINTON, Ohio — The day after his best friend allegedly fell over the side of his boat, Scott Speer behaved erratically during a search outing on his boat and would not help look for the body onshore, nor go near it when it was found, a witness testified Wednesday.

Terry Keen, who is dating a sister of the victim, James Burnett, told a jury that Speer drove him and one of Barnett's brothers out to Mouse Island in Lake Erie the day after Barnett went overboard.

"We did it for the mother," he told the jury.

Keen said Speer was a "wreck" throughout the day, going from crying to laughing as they embarked on a full-day search in the waters and on the island near where Barnett was last seen. (MAP)

"I don't know how to describe it," Keen said. "He just didn't have his stuff together. He was spaced out and giddy, I don't know how else you can put it ... it was just different."

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The testimony came on the third day of Speer's murder trial. He is accused of pushing his longtime friend off his 24-foot boat on Aug. 6, 2002. Prosecutors say Barnett was set to testify against Speer in his upcoming divorce proceedings.

Members of Barnett's family clutched each other and cried in the courtroom gallery while Keen described the search for and discovery of Barnett's body.

Keen said that Speer took him and Roger Young out on the same boat that Barnett had fallen off the day before. When they got to Mouse Island, near where Barnett disappeared, Young and Keen got out of the boat, but Speer stayed behind.

Keen said he walked clockwise around the rocky island, which was difficult to navigate because of the numerous holes and rough terrain. As they climbed over rocks, they scoured the shoreline looking for any sign of Barnett. At one point, he said, they reached an area where they could not continue along the shoreline because of the terrain, so they climbed over rocks away from the shoreline, just barely missing the area where they would later find Barnett's body.

Once they returned to the dock, Keen noticed an area by the shore that was covered with gnats.

"There were thousands of them," he said. That's where he found Barnett.

"His body was laying half in the water and half out with his face down in the water," he testified. "Me and Roger rolled him over so his face wasn't in the water."

Keen said he motioned to Speer to come over, but Speer wouldn't go near the body. Keen called 911, and the U.S. Coast Guard came 40 minutes later to retrieve the body.

Barnett disappeared in the early morning hours of Aug. 6, after a day on the water with Speer. Speer called 911 at about 2 a.m. that day to say that his friend had fallen into the water and was missing. Police questioned him about an hour later at a dock on the mainland.

Officer Todd Parkinson, who was working with the Danbury Township police at the time, said that when he first arrived at Marina Del Isle, where Speer docked, he found it odd that Speer had carefully tied up his boat.

"I just felt it was unusual considering the circumstances that you would take the time to tie up the boat with three lines and take the motor out of the water," he said.

Parkinson said he noticed Speer's slurred speech and bloodshot eyes, and gave Speer a field sobriety test, which he failed.

Russell Buzzelli, Speer's defense attorney, asked Parkinson how a drunken man could have so neatly and carefully tied up his boat.

"Isn't that a sign of sobriety?" he asked.

Buzzelli proposed numerous other possible reasons for Speer's bloodshot eyes and his sobriety test result, including sickness, high blood pressure, sun stroke, eye muscle fatigue, exposure to power fumes and vertigo.

Parkinson said his training did not teach him that those situations could cause a false positive on the test.

"Did you ask him if he was crying?" Buzzelli asked. "Have you observed people whose eyes are red and watery after they are crying?"

Speer, 42, is charged with murder, aggravated murder, aggravated vehicular manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. Although prosecutors believe he pushed Barnett overboard, they have also presented evidence that he was driving the boat recklessly.

On Tuesday, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Investigator Sam Dewalt testified he believed Speer was speeding despite rough waters and wind conditions. On Wednesday a member of the Coast Guard testified that there was a small craft advisory warning, which applied to boats the size of Speer's.

Kurt Schoemaker, the Coast Guard captain on the night of the accident, said the conditions would be difficult but not unnavigable.

"It'd be a very rough ride, it wouldn't be comfortable, but [the boat] could operate safely," he said.