SOUTH PARIS — Danny McCluskie admitted on a taped confession played Tuesday in Oxford County Superior Court that he drank beer before he fired three shots at a man who had an affair with his wife.

The tape of Maine State Police Detective Dale Lancaster interviewing McCluskie was made at the San Bernadino County Jail in California shortly after his arrest last August for the killing of Jeffrey Gagnon in Maine.

During the interview, Lancaster told McCluskie, “I want to know the truth.”

“All right, I shot him, OK?” McCluskie replied. He admitted drinking “almost a 12-pack of beer” before the incident. He said he fired three shots, but only one struck Gagnon.

Prosecutors say McCluskie conspired to kill Gagnon and shot him at least twice in the back in July 1989. Gagnon’s remains were found near Canton Point Road in Dixfield in April 1990.

McCluskie’s wife Brenda and her father Alfred Thibeault also were indicted, but she died last month while being held without bail in Oxford County Jail. The state has not determined a cause for her death.

Thibeault has been free on bail and will be tried separately.

On the tape, McCluskie said Gagnon lived in his home for a while before his wife began having an affair. Later, Gagnon “started making phone calls, threatening me quite a few times, me and my kids,” McCluskie said.

A friend of the McCluskies took the stand Tuesday and testified that Danny said he was going to kill Gagnon because he was having an affair with Brenda.

Sally Crocker of Randolph said that McCluskie told her in June 1989 that he and Brenda had broken up and that she had moved in with Gagnon in Augusta.

Asked by prosecutors what McCluskie intended to do about his wife’s affair, Crocker testified that McCluskie told her that “he was going to kill Jeff.”

Later, McCluskie told her that they had gotten back together and that he needed to get out of town fast, Crocker testified.

Brenda McCluskie’s younger sister, Janet Thibeault, testified that the McCluskies and her father sat around a picnic table burning items in July 1989.

She said a wallet and handkerchief were among the items. No wallet was found on Gagnon’s body.

Maine Assistant Attorney General Thomas Goodwin said the McCluskies became acquainted with Gagnon, 25, while the three worked for an egg and chicken farm in Turner.

Defense attorney David Whittier blamed the killing on Mrs. McCluskie, who he alleged shot Gagnon on her own, then brought Thibeault and her husband to see the body.

The McCluskies had been held without bail following their arrest in Victorville, Calif.