A stripper testified yesterday about setting off an argument that ended in the deaths of two guests at a birthday party in Penn Hills in 2005.

Alfon R. Brown, Erik R. Surratt, Richard G. Cunningham and Ramone S. Coto are on trial for storming the house and fatally shooting two men when it became clear that the private gig she and two other women were hired for was not going as planned.

La'Angel "Spice" Potter, 24, of East Pittsburgh, was arrested in connection with the slayings, but the prosecutor withdrew a homicide charge and lowered her bond after she agreed to testify.

Ms. Potter told Common Pleas Judge Lester G. Nauhaus that she and two colleagues arrived at the host's home on Westwood Road with the understanding that two of them would strip for $200 apiece and each would give a $25 commission to the third woman who had made the arrangements.

The host, Kevilin Middleton, thought Ms. Potter was flat chested and skinny, and asked her to bare her chest before he would pay, she testified. She refused.

She testified that the birthday guest of honor, T.C. Preston Lyerly, told Mr. Middleton she was fine and said, "Yeah, pay them." But the host became agitated.

She told the court Mr. Middleton sashayed across the room, apparently imitating a woman's walk. Ms. Potter said she slapped his behind, pushed him and grabbed cash from his pants pocket "because he was ignorant."

After a flurry of cell phone calls to and from the strippers, the four men came to the house, she said. She identified Mr. Brown, 31, of North Braddock, as the first man to enter. Mr. Brown is Ms. Potter's on-again, off-again boyfriend and the father of her 4-year-old daughter.

Mr. Brown is charged with burglary, conspiracy and two counts of homicide in the deaths of Mr. Lyerly 36, of Wilkinsburg, and his half-brother, Chaoe Davis, 22, of East Liberty.

Ms. Potter testified that as she fled the house, she brushed up against the next man heading inside. The lead stripper, Geneva "Black Cherry" Burrell, directed him toward the kitchen. He was black, had short dreadlocks and his face was covered with a wrap-around mask that revealed only his eyes, she said.

At some point, she said, shots rang out.

She identified the third intruder as Mr. Surratt, who had dated Ms. Burrell and the third stripper, Helen "Odyssey" McCorkle. She said he aimed a gun at Mr. Davis. The victim "was standing and then he wasn't standing any more," she said.

She said she did not see Mr. Surratt pull the trigger, but she identified the weapon used when the prosecutor showed it to her -- a long-nosed .45-caliber semi-automatic Thompson, which Allegheny County homicide detectives say was the gun that killed Mr. Davis.

Mr. Surratt, 19, Mr. Cunningham, 24, and Mr. Coto, 22, all from Braddock, each face two homicide charges as well as charges of criminal attempt, burglary and conspiracy. Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Coto are also charged with aggravated assault.

Ms. Potter also testified that she lied to police initially, saying she knew nothing about the intruders.

Mr. Surratt's lawyer, Patrick Nightingale, asked if she later cooperated with police because she was facing a possible life sentence for homicide.

"I'm willing to tell the truth so I can be home for my daughter. I've come too far to be up here lying," Ms. Potter said.